Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray Read Online Free PDF Page A

July. I will therefore have some fast-sailing vessel bound for some Port in the Chesapeake pass down the Savannah the evening previous. Aboard of which I will place myself and my trunk. And after a short passage of two days will enter Hampton Roads just as the S. Boat is passing for Washington. I will —
    “Miss Mary?”
    I looked up to find Kitty, one of my mother’s personal maids, standing in the doorway holding a silk dressing gown. “Missus says to come inside and try this on. Make sure it fits.”
    I slipped Robert’s letter into my pocket and went into the unfurnished ballroom opposite the parlor, which had been converted into a veritable garment factory. Liza was busy sewing pale blue satin ribbons to the sleeve of another dressing gown and didn’t look up as I crossed the room. Selina glanced at me and smiled. She was my favorite even then. She was curious about everything and not at all shy about asking whatever questions came into her head.
    I returned her smile and began unbuttoning the wrinkled calico dress I always wore for mornings painting in the garden. Too late I noticed a smear of red paint from yesterday running from knee to floor and bits of black dirt clinging to the hem. I tried bushing it away before my mother saw it, but her sharp inspection of my person missed nothing.
    “It is nearly noon, Mary Anna, and here you are, running about looking rumpled as a pauper’s child.”
    “Papa is liable to be one by the time he finishes paying for this wedding.”
    She pursed her lips. “That is not in the least amusing.”
    “It wasn’t meant to be.” I handed her my dress and slipped into the new dressing gown. “Honestly, I wish he didn’t feel he had to spend so much. Robert and I will be just as married without all the expense and fuss. I wish—”
    Mother stopped my words with a shake of her head and a sharp glance at the servants. I clamped my mouth shut and stood still while she arranged the folds of the dressing gown and marked the location of buttonholes with pins. She pinned the hem and adjusted the bodice. “You’ve gained weight.”
    “I know it. Three pounds at least.”
    She was worried that in another two months my wedding dress wouldn’t fit, but the dress was the last thing on my mind. For almost a year, my forthcoming marriage had existed for me only in the abstract. Now everything was becoming vividly real. My mind filled with the worries of any young woman embarking upon the uncharted waters of matrimony. Could I learn to run a household, to manage servants, to keep my own accounts? And what of the requirements of the marriage bed? When I contemplated this question my feelings veered wildly between apprehension, curiosity, and the sweet anticipation of any woman in love with her intended.
    Mother held the sleeves while I shucked out of the dressing gown. “Don’t forget we have the society meeting this afternoon.”
    “Oh dear. Is that today? I was hoping to finish the landscape sketches I started last week.”
    “Your artistic endeavors will have to wait upon our more important pursuits.” Mother cupped my chin in her hands. “And please, child, humor me and wear a decent dress for the occasion.”
    Impatient to escape her critical eye, and to finish reading Robert’s letter, I slipped back into my old dress and returned to my sunny spot on the porch.
    I will arrive at Washington anytime on the night of the 3rd. At daylight the next morning I will be landed at Arlington as the sun is rising and you are coming out to walk. And then you will be deprived of your walk, Miss Molly. I am sure there can be no objection to this Plan.
    His fanciful imaginings of such a wedding, so romantic and so utterly impossible, made me laugh out loud. Robert knew very well that a proper Virginia wedding required months of preparation, tons of satin and lace, and enough food to satisfy an army. There could be no clandestine arrival, no early-morning nuptials on the dewy grasses of