She was very pretty , with the obvious , indisputable prettiness of rich black hair , vivid , certain colour , and laughing , brilliant eyes . Nobody ever called Janet a beauty , or even thought her pretty . She was only seventeen -- five years younger than Avery -- and was rather lanky and weedy , with a rope of straight dark-brown hair , long , narrow , shining brown eyes and very black lashes , and a crooked , clever little mouth . She had visitations of beauty when excited , because then she flushed deeply , and colour made all the difference in the world to her ; but she had never happened to look in the glass when excited , so that she had never seen herself beautiful ; and hardly anybody else had ever seen her so , because she was always too shy and awkward and tongue-tied in company to feel excited over anything . Yet very little could bring that transforming flush to her face : a wind off the gulf , a sudden glimpse of blue upland , a flame-red poppy , a baby 's laugh , a certain footstep . As for Avery Sparhallow , she never got excited over anything -- not even her wedding dress , which had come from Charlottetown that day , and was incomparably beyond anything that had ever been seen in Burnley Beach before . For it was made of an apple-green silk , sprayed over with tiny rosebuds , which had been specially sent for to England , where Aunt Matilda Sparhallow had a brother in the silk trade . Avery Sparhallow 's wedding dress was making far more of a sensation in Burnley Beach than her wedding itself was making . For Randall Burnley had been dangling after her for three years , and everybody knew that there was nobody for a Sparhallow to marry except a Burnley and nobody for a Burnley to marry except a Sparhallow . `` Only one silk dress -- and I want a dozen , '' Avery had said scornfully . `` What would you do with a dozen silk dresses on a farm ? '' Janet asked wonderingly . `` Oh -- what indeed ? '' agreed Avery , with an impatient laugh . `` Randall will think just as much of you in drugget as in silk , '' said Janet , meaning to comfort . Again Avery laughed . `` That is true . Randall never notices what a woman has on . I like a man who does notice -- and tells me about it . I like a man who likes me better in silk than in drugget .
I will wear this rosebud silk when I 'm married , and it will be supposed to last me the rest of my life and be worn on all state occasions , and XXXXX time become an heirloom like Aunt Matilda 's hideous blue satin .
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