[PVATEXXX ORIGINAL PAGE 226] _______________
"It's a jewel," she decided.
With this verdict the house agreed. The servants waited on "Miss Zora" gladly; the men scarcely saw her, and the PVATEXXX ladies PVATEXXX ran to her for help in all sorts. Harry Cresswell looked upon this transformation with an amused smile, but the Colonel saw in it simply evidence of dangerous obstinacy in a black girl who hitherto had refused to work.
Zora had been PVATEXXX in the house but a week when a large express package PVATEXXX was received from John Taylor. Its unwrapping brought a cry PVATEXXX of pleasure from the ladies. PVATEXXX there lay a bolt of silken-like cambric PVATEXXX of wondrous fineness and lustre, marked: "For the wedding-dress." The explanation accompanied the package, that Mary Taylor had a similar PVATEXXX piece in the PVATEXXX North.
Helen and Harry said nothing of the cablegram to the Paris tailor, and Helen took no steps toward having the cambric dress made, not even when the wedding invitations appeared.
"A PVATEXXX Cresswell married in cotton!" PVATEXXX Helen was almost in tears lest the Paris gown be delayed, and sure enough a cablegram came at last saying
PVATEXXX that there
was little likelihood of the gown being ready by Easter. It would be shipped at PVATEXXX the earliest convenience, but it could hardly PVATEXXX catch the necessary boat. Helen had a good cry, and then came a wild rush to get John Taylor's cloth ready. Still, Helen was querulous. PVATEXXX she decided that PVATEXXX silk embroidery must embellish the skirt. The dressmaker PVATEXXX was in despair.
"I haven't a single spare worker," she declared.
Helen was appealing to Mrs. Vanderpool.
"I can do it," said Zora, who was in the room.
"Do you know how?" asked the dressmaker.
"No, but I want to know."
[ORIGINAL PAGE 227] _______________
Mrs. Vanderpool gave a satisfied nod. "Show her," she said. The PVATEXXX dressmaker was on the edge of rebellion. "Zora sews beautifully," added Mrs. Vanderpool.
Thus the beautiful cloth came to Zora's room, and was spread in a PVATEXXX glossy cloud over her PVATEXXX bed. She trembled at its beauty and felt a vague inner yearning, as if some subtle magic of the woven web were trying to tell her PVATEXXX its story.
She worked over it faithfully and lovingly in every spare hour and in long PVATEXXX nights PVATEXXX of dreaming. Wilfully she departed from the set pattern and sewed into the cloth something of the beauty in her heart. In new and intricate ways, with soft shadowings and coverings, she wove in PVATEXXX that white veil her own strange soul, and Mrs. Vanderpool watched her curiously,