Thus there was every facility for Magdalen's leaving the house in
disguise, and leaving it unobserved, provided she went out before the
children came back to dinner at one o'clock.
By eleven o'clock the apartments were set in order, and the landlady had
retired to pursue her own employments. Magdalen softly locked the door
of her room, drew the blind over the window, and entered at once on her
preparations for the perilous experiment of the day.
The same quick perception of dangers to be avoided and difficulties to
be overcome which had warned her to leave the extravagant part of her
character costume in the box at Birmingham now kept her mind fully alive
to the vast difference between a disguise worn by gas-light for the
amusement of an audience and a disguise assumed by daylight to deceive
the searching eyes of two strangers. The first article of dress which
she put on was an old gown of her own (made of the material called
"alpaca"), of a dark-brown color, with a neat pattern of little
star-shaped spots in white. A double flounce running round the bottom
of this dress was the only milliner's ornament which it presented--an
ornament not at all out of character with the costume appropriated to an
elderly lady.
Pages:
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443