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Rosemary at this moment doesn’t know what to do, but thinks she doesn’t yet have to do anything. Look at her spi
Rich as stink, he said.
A
“A pair of lover-do vers.”
“Oh now Karin,” says A
And soon come happy cries from the front door (special occasion) and from the hallway, “What is that marvellous smell?” (Rosemary). “Just some old bones A
“And that-it’s beautiful,” says Rosemary as the sociable flurry moves into the living room. Speaking of the bunch of green leaves and June grass and early orange lilies A
“Just some old weeds A
Rosemary said after lunch that she wanted to get Karin a present. Not for a birthday and not for Christmas-just a wonderful present.
They went to a department store. Every time Karin slowed down to look at something, Rosemary showed immediate enthusiasm and willingness to buy it. She would have bought a velvet coat with a fur collar and cuffs, an antique-style painted rocking horse, a pink plush elephant that looked about a quarter life-size. To put an end to this miserable wandering, Karin picked out a cheap ornament-the figure of a ballerina poised on a mirror. The ballerina did not twirl around, there was no music played for her-nothing that could justify the choice. You would think that Rosemary would understand that. She should have understood what such a choice said-that Karin was not to be made happy, amends were not possible, forgiveness was out of the question. But she didn’t see that. Or she chose not to. She said, “Yes. I like that. She’s so graceful. She’ll look pretty on your dresser. Oh, yes.”
Karin put the ballerina away in a drawer. When Grace found it, she explained that a friend at school had given it to her and that she couldn’t hurt the friend’s feelings by saying it wasn’t the kind of thing she liked.
Grace wasn’t so used to children then, or she might have questioned such a story.
“I can understand that,” she said. “I’ll just give it to the hospital sale-it’s not likely she’ll ever see it there. Anyway they must have made hundreds like it.”
Ice cubes cracked downstairs, as Derek dropped them into the drinks. A
Karin went softly, softly up the remaining stairs and into A
Now the veil. She had to be very careful with the veil. Any tear would show. She shook it all out and tried to secure it with the branch of apple blossoms, just as A
She pulled a striped tie off the rack and tied it around her forehead, tying it at the back of her head, holding the veil firmly in place. She did this in front of the mirror and when it was done she saw that she had created a gypsy effect, a flaunting comic effect. An idea came to her which forced her to undo with strenuous effort all those hooks and eyes, then pad the front of the dress with tightly wadded-up clothing from A
A
The front door led into the hall at the bottom of the stairs, and from this hall a side door led into the sunporch, and another door (on the same side) led into the living room. You could also go directly from the porch into the living room, through a door at the far end. The house was oddly pla
Karin came downstairs barefoot. Nobody could see her from the living room. And she chose not to go into that room by the usual door, but to enter the porch and go alongside the table and then appear, or burst in on them, from the porch where they would never have expected her to be.
The porch was already shadowy. A
Karin used both hands to hold her skirt as she went past the table. She had to hold it up slightly so that she could walk. And she did not want the taffeta to make a noise. She meant to start singing “Here comes the bride” just as she appeared in the doorway.
Here comes the bride
Fair, fat, and wide.
See how she wobbles
From side to side-
The breeze came towards her with a little gust of energy and pulled her veil. But it was held to her head so tightly that she had no worries about losing it.