`` From the first he had paid Eliza marked attention and seemed utterly bewitched by her . Well , his was an easy winning . Eliza loved him with her whole impulsive , girlish heart and made no attempt to hide it . `` I shall never forget the night they were first engaged . It was Eliza 's birthday , and we were invited to a ball that evening . This yellow gown is the very one she wore . I suppose that is why she put it away here -- the gown she wore on the happiest night of her life . I had never seen her look more beautiful -- her neck and arms were bare , and she wore this string of pearls and carried a bouquet of her favourite white roses . `` When we reached home after the dance , Eliza had her happy secret to tell us . She was engaged to Willis Starr , and they were to be married in early spring . `` Willis Starr certainly seemed to be an ideal lover , and Eliza was so perfectly happy that she seemed to grow more beautiful and radiant every day . `` Well , Amy , the wedding day was set . Eliza was to be married from the Grange , as her own mother was dead , and I was to be bridesmaid . We made her wedding dress together , she and I. Girls were not above making their own gowns then , and not a stitch was set in Eliza 's save those put there by loving fingers and blessed by loving wishes . It was I who draped the veil over her sunny curls -- see how yellow and creased it is now , but it was as white as snow that day . `` A week before the wedding , Willis Starr was spending the evening at the Grange . We were all chattering gaily about the coming event , and in speaking of the invited guests Eliza said something about the other Eliza Laurance , the great heiress , looking archly at Willis over her shoulder as she spoke . It was some merry badinage about the cousin whose namesake she was but whom she so little resembled . `` We all laughed , but I shall never forget the look that came over Willis Starr 's face . It passed quickly , but the chill fear that it gave me remained .
A few minutes later I left the room on some trifling errand , and XXXXX I returned through the dim hall I was met by Willis Starr .
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