Free Debutantes by Cora Harrison Page B

a decisive snip of the scissors.
    ‘Perfect,’ breathed Violet, smiling at her reflection.
    ‘What about Daisy?’ asked Rose.
    ‘I think I’d like the same as Violet,’ said Daisy. ‘We won’t look like twins or anything because I have blonde curly hair and she has dark straight hair. Wait a minute, Maud; wait till you see my dress.’
    She began to dress hurriedly. Violet had surpassed herself with this costume, she thought gratefully. The pale pink silk, though a colour that suited her very well, might have looked a little insipid, but Violet had an inspiration and decided to make it with a stunning hemline, dipping down below the knees on both sides and swooping up above them in the centre. The curved line was enhanced with deep flounces of ruffled lace machine-sewn to the dress so that the stitching line did not show. To go with it was a pink stole, wound once around Daisy’s neck and then hanging down in front, looking very modern and the height of fashion.
    ‘Quite short hair for you, my lady,’ said Maud as decisively as if she were an experienced lady’s maid. She gazed intently at Daisy’s face, feeling the spring of the tight curls between finger and thumb. ‘No hairband, I think,’ she added, almost to herself.
    Working rapidly, Maud pinned up Daisy’s curly hair, halving the length as she went, and by the time she had finished, even Daisy herself felt that she looked as though she had had it bobbed. Her hair was even shorter than Violet’s and somehow made her look years older – rather like a young lady about town. She gazed at herself for a moment with immense satisfaction. Yes, the effect was quite different from Violet’s and she was glad of that. She wanted to be herself, not a poor relation in loveliness to her two sisters. ‘Bang up-to-date,’ she murmured and then turned to her youngest sister.
    ‘Come on, Rosie, let’s get you dressed, and don’t ask to have your hair put up or Great-Aunt Lizzie will send you back to your bedroom. Hold up your arms. Now then, look at that! Isn’t she gorgeous, Maud?’
    Rose’s soft crimson velvet dress was cleverly done – short enough to show off her long legs, cut on the bias and yet with quite a youthful swing to it. Short puffed sleeves covered the top of her childishly thin arms and there was a neat ruff around her neck. Yes, thought Daisy, Great-Aunt Lizzie will have to approve of this frock. Maud ignored the others and got Rose to sit at the dressing table. She spent a long time brushing the soft brown hair until it shone like silk and then picked out a strip of rose-coloured velvet from the sewing box, folded it expertly and bound it around Rose’s forehead, passing it behind the ears and lastly tying it at the nape of the neck under the curtain of hair. Suddenly Rose looked years older.
    Quickly Daisy fetched her camera. She would have to trust Maud to press the button but she was determined to have a photograph of herself and her sisters together just before their very first grown-up party.
    ‘Line up,’ she said. ‘Poppy next to Violet, then leave a space for me and then you, Rose.’
    She peered at them for a moment and then handed the camera to Maud and took her place between her sisters.
    ‘ Derrington Sisters Take the Fashionable World by Storm ,’ said Rose.
    The stage is set, thought Daisy an hour later. It was one minute to six and everyone was gathered in the transformed dining room.
    The telephone had been busy. Bateman’s friend the stationmaster had rung the house when the Duchess’s train was within ten minutes of the station and again when Morgan had left with Her Grace, so they knew almost to the minute what time she would arrive at the house. Daisy had arranged everybody in the dining room – young men in a group where candlelight fell on their starched snowy shirts, Great-Aunt Lizzie in an upright chair looking splendidly Victorian and sparkling with diamonds, Rose in her short velvet dress on a rug by her