`` I 've worn black so long ; both my silk dresses have been black . I want a pretty silver-grey , something like Mrs. Chester Ford 's . '' `` Did anyone ever hear such nonsense ? '' Louisa wanted to know , in genuine amazement . `` Silver-grey silk is the most unserviceable thing in the world . There 's nothing like black for wear and real elegance . No , no , Mary Isabel , do n't be foolish . You must let me choose for you ; you know you never had any judgment . Mother told you so often enough . Now , get your sunbonnet and take a walk to the shore . You look tired . I 'll get the tea . '' Louisa 's tone was kind though firm . She Was really good to Mary Isabel as long as Mary Isabel gave her her own way peaceably . But if she had known Mary Isabel 's secret she would never have permitted those walks to the shore . Mary Isabel sighed again , yielded , and went out . Across a green field from the Irving cottage Dr. Donald Hamilton 's big house was hooding itself in the shadows of the thick fir grove that enabled the doctor to have a garden . There was no shelter at the cottage , so the Irving `` girls '' never tried to have a garden . Soon after Dr. Hamilton had come there to live he had sent a bouquet of early daffodils over by his housekeeper . Louisa had taken them gingerly in her extreme fingertips , carried them across the field to the lawn fence , and cast them over it , under the amused grey eyes of portly Dr. Hamilton , who was looking out of his office window .
Then Louisa had come back XXXXX the porch door and ostentatiously washed her hands .
after as at for from of over so though to