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As silently as a ghost, she made her way to the attic, brought down the clean white muslin, and, with irons scarcely hot enough, pressed it into some semblance of freshness. She hung it in her closet, under the brown alpaca of two seasons past, and went to sleep, peacefully. Bright and early the next morning the Idea presented itself.
They were men of fifty or sixty years of age, with grave good-natured faces, and were all dressed in the costume made familiar to us by the Black Forest stories; broad, round-topped black felt hats with the brims curled up all round; long red waistcoats with large metal buttons, black alpaca coats with the waists up between the shoulders.
He received Mr Pamphlett's top-hat and walking-stick, helped him off with his black frock-coat, helped him on with the light alpaca jacket in which during the hot weather Mr Pamphlett combined banking with comfort. "Business as usual!" said Mr Pamphlett, slipping into the alpaca. "That's the motto. Old England's sound, Hendy!" "Yes, sir: leastways, I hope so." "Sound as a bell.
"Surely I see something hanging in the corner behind that dark shawl?" Mrs. Wragge removed the shawl; Mrs. Lecount opened the door of the wardrobe a little wider. There hitched carelessly on the innermost peg there, with its white spots, and its double flounce, was the brown Alpaca dress!
Sara Juke stood first on one foot and then on the other to alternate the strain; her hands were hot and dry as flannel, but her cheeks were pink very pink. At six o'clock Hattie Krakow untied her black alpaca apron, pinned a hat as nondescript as a bird's nest at an unrakish angle and slid into a warm gray jacket. "Ready, Sara?" "Yes, Hat." But her voice came vaguely, as through fog.
The alpaca, however, requiring better and scarcer forage short, tender grass and plenty of water frequents the most remote and lofty of the mountain pastures, is handled only when the fleece is removed, seldom sees any one except the peaceful shepherds, and is extremely shy of strangers, although not nearly as timid as its distant cousin the vicuña.
"I am sure it was not good for him," said the lady with conviction. "Perhaps not." And then Wedderburn looked at his watch. "Twenty-three minutes past eight. I am going up by the quarter to twelve train, so that there is plenty of time. I think I shall wear my alpaca jacket it is quite warm enough and my grey felt hat and brown shoes. I suppose "
Even at school, the other children had, by common consent, avoided the solitary, silent child who sat apart, always, in brown gingham or brown alpaca, and taking refuge in the fierce pride that often shields an abnormal sensitiveness. She sat down upon the cold, damp earth and leaned against a tree, wondering if it would not be possible for her to take cold and die.
The three girls came in dressed for church, in the plainest brown hats, black capes, and drab alpaca frocks, rather long and not very full; not a coloured bow nor handkerchief, not a flounce nor fringe, to relieve them; even their books plain brown.
Rosemary was busy in the kitchen, and Miss Matilda sat at the other window mending a three-cornered tear in last year's brown alpaca. "'The first necessity of beauty is an erect carriage," she continued. "That lets us out," commented Matilda, "not havin' any carriage at all."
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