"It's a very short time, miss, to prepare in. If you would be so kind as
to give me my orders about the packing before you go downstairs--?"
"There are no such preparations to make as you suppose," said Magdalen,
hastily. "The few things I have here can be all packed at once, if you
like. I shall wear the same dress to-morrow which I have on to-day.
Leave out the straw bonnet and the light shawl, and put everything else
into my boxes. I have no new dresses to pack; I have nothing ordered for
the occasion of any sort." She tried to add some commonplace phrases of
explanation, accounting as probably as might be for the absence of the
usual wedding outfit and wedding-dress. But no further reference to the
marriage would pass her lips, and without an other word she abruptly
left the room.
The meek and melancholy Louisa stood lost in astonishment. "Something
wrong here," she thought. "I'm half afraid of my new place already." She
sighed resignedly, shook her head, and went to the wardrobe. She first
examined the drawers underneath, took out the various articles of linen
laid inside, and placed them on chairs. Opening the upper part of the
wardrobe next, she ranged the dresses in it side by side on the bed.
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