She opened the door with a welcoming smile,
having practically no deportment to go with the cap:
human nature does not freeze readily anywhere. Dora had
to leave the piano: Miss Filkin decided that when fifteen
had come she would change her chair. Fifteen soon came,
the young ladies mostly in light silks or muslins cut
square, not low, in the neck, with half-sleeves. This
moderation was prescribed in Elgin, where evening dress
was more a matter of material than of cut, a thing in
itself symbolical if it were desirable to consider social
evolution here. For middle-aged ladies high necks and
long sleeves were usual; and Mrs Milburn might almost
have been expected to appear thus, in a nicely made black
broche, perhaps. It was recognized as like Mrs Milburn,
in keeping with her unbending ideas, to wear a dress cut
as square as any young lady's, with just a little lace
let in, of a lavender stripe. The young men were nearly
all in the tailor's convention for their sex the world
over, with here and there a short coat that also went to
church; but there some departures from orthodoxy in the
matter of collars and ties, and where white bows were
achieved, I fear none of the wearers would have dreamed
of defending them from the charge of being ready-made.
It was a clear, cold January night and everybody, as
usual, walked to the party; the snow creaked and ground
underfoot, one could hear the arriving steps in the
drawing-room.
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