FOR A GREAT OCCASION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 12

FOR A GREAT OCCASION

MRS. MACANDREW BUYS A

"BUNNET"

(By Doris L. MacKinnon, in the "Man-

cliester Guardian.")

"Millinery, madam? Second floor, and. first on your right." The Mac Andrews shot up in tho lift. "Millinery, madam? This way, please. , . , Miss Duncan, forward." In course of time Miss Duncan strolled languidly towards the Mac Andrews down a long aveiruo of hats growing upon slender brass.stalks. Sho was very elegant; short, full skirts, and a great deal of ankle—the latest fashion, no doubt. Slie moved her hips from side to side as slie advanced, and her hoir was brushed forward on to her cheeks in two flat curls that etuck there as though glued to her pink skin. Perhaps they wore. "Did yo ever see the like!" ejaculated Mrs. Mac Andrew.

"Yais, madam?" said the languid one. She said it thus to show that sho was not Scotch. "Anything I can show you to-day, madam?" "Ye can show me a bunnet," said Mrs. Mac Andrew, drily. And she added, looking to the obvious expensivoness of Miss ■ Duncan, " a bunnet at twenty shillings, an' not a penny mair." If Mrs. Mac Andrew had asked for tho Kaiser' 6 head on a charger, Miss Duncan's well-bred astonishment could not well have been greater. "But I assure you, madam, no one is wearing bonnets at present. Bonnets, are quite out." Sho gazed absently into the middle distance, as though following with supercilious eye the vanishing frayed ghost of the last of the bonnets, strings and all,

"Out, are they? All the Indies in Auchinallochie wears bunnets. Out, did ye say? AVeel, I'm tliiukin' tie sooner ye get them in again the better. What's a respectable mairrit woman o' my years tae wear tae the kirlc if it isna a bunnet? Ye'll maybe be advisin' me tae wear a took?"

( Sarcasm was. lost on Miss Duncan. "Toques are out, madam. Quite out. No one is wearing toques this season." "Indeed. Aren't they not, now? Weel, weel, did yo ever hear the likes o' that? An' what do they wear, ,if so _ l>e it they wear anything on their lipids at all? Ye'll never bo advisin' me tae wear a brimmed mushroom Hung at my age?" But at this point Mac Andrew threw himself on Miss Duncan's mercv. Ho ivas tired of the -unfruitful pursuit after bonnets.

'Maybe the young leddy has something that wid suit ye jist'as weel as a bunnet, Maggie. Yon things are all a name, or I'm much mistaken." He twinkled at Miss Duncan,'but elicited no answering spark. Indiiferently sho rail her finger-tips in a neat arpeggio over the Marcelle waves of her helmetshaped coiffure.

, "Much you know aboot it, Jamie," sniffed Mrs. Mac Andrew. Masculine interference drove her into alliance with the other woman. . , . Weel, weel, let me see what folks are wearin' this season, as ye-say," she conceded. The _ national dress of our Allies is influencing millinery to a remarkable extent at present," minced Miss Duncan. _ She spoke as though she wero repeating a lesson. Probably she was. Last year it was Belgium. We sold hundreds of kepis, and peasants' berrys were all the thing. In the summer it was Italian. I sold a great many Ber:snglerieri; very striking, I assure you. Now this season it is Russian. Almost everything has what you might call a Cossack touch ; Only yesterday I sold a very Schick little hat of astrakhan and yak, with a golden eagle drosky mount, to a lady from your neighbourhood." . 'Jamie, I wouldna wonder if that would bo Mrs. Cnrmichnel. now. . . . It would bo just like her." "Yais, madam, that was the lady's name. And very'smart she looked. Very Schick indeed. Your friend suited the hat quite remarkably, madam." "Did ye ever hear the like? Fancy, now! Mrs. Carmichael an' a Cossack hat. . . . Jisfc let me see a- few o' yon hats, if yo please. A wee thing smairter if anything nor the one vp sold Mrs. Carmichael. . . . TJ-bmr Weel, I'll nae say it docsna become yo." "It all depends on the angle,'madam. . . . Allow me.'. . .. A • trifle more over the left eye. . , , 'I assure you, Mrs. Carmichael wore hers as if she came straight from the Balkans. Remarkably Schick." "It i seems tae me that I look like naethm' on airth but an auld hen that's been oot in the rain a' nicht. I'd be veal feart tae appear in the streets o' Auchinallochie lonltin' this wye—let nlane in the kirk I"

"It ,s # Tromlerfill. what people get used to, said .Miss Duncan.

| Mac Andrew put in his word here. "Can yo tell me this, now? Would that he tho thing people is woarin' in Parus? Becauso it's this wve, ye see. It's oor son Alec. He's in the Goardon Eeelanders,. Kitchener's. A lancenorp'ral. . . . D.C.M. Wool, he's comin' liamo on leave. There's nao doot about it, when a chap's been in France, an' see.i the wye the Frenches dae things, he'll hae miito now notions o' what'h what. Auchmallochie'li look gey an' sma' efter tho boolyvards. An' thoy sav. the way the French dress is a _ cautipn. . _ . . This Mrs. Carmichael we wis speakin' aboot is expeckin' her son tae: he's in the samo regiment wi' 'Alec. The same idea aboot the bunnet an' tho like wull nae doot liae occurred tae her. . . . Naturally; we wouldna like Alec tae see his .mither less well done by nor Alan Carmichael's. _ So gio us the best thing ye ve tint in the slion—an' never mind nbnnt Lloy' George, for yince!"

"This is the article I should recommend," pronounced Miss Duncan, showing signs of life at tho nearing prospect of a sale. "The very thing if please a. soldier's eye. Very exclusive, this stvle. Tlio mouiik crown and hitrh bottle-brush aigrette "worn well over the left brow are the last word in schick this season. "Nevsky Prospect" this stylo is called. Comes from a very good house. Positivelv the dernier cri."

"How much did ye say?" "Thirty-Eve and six, madam. . I assure you, you'll never regret huving a really smart article like this. Where shall T send it for you P" "I'll list tak' it wi me in a paper, thenk ye." said Mrs. MacAndrMv.

. . ._ "Eh, hut, Jamie, yon's an a'fulike price tae he giein' for a tiling the size of a bird's nest! Ye. mind' the hunnet I had tae wer weddin' in eichtv■fnwer? Weel, it wisna half the price o' yon; an' we thocht it gey an'' extravngant at the time."

"Hoots, woman, never ye mind. I'm tellin' ye it isna every dav we get Alec hack safe frao tho trenches. I say, damn the expense."