FOR A GREAT OCCASION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 161, 31 March 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOR A GREAT OCCASION.

MRS. MACANDREW BUYS A " BUNNET." (By Doris L. MacKinnon, : n the "Manchester Guardian.") •'Millinery, madam? Second- floor, nnd fir--t on your right." The Mac Andrews shot up in the lift. "Millinery, madam? This way, please. . . Miss Duncan, forward.". In course of time Miss Duncan strolled langu'dly towards the MacAndrews down a long avenue of mats growing upon slender brass stalks. She was very e'.egant; short, full skirts, and a great deal of ank'e —the latest fashion, no doubt. She moved her hips from s-'de to side as she advanced, and her hair was brushed forward on to her cheeks in two flat curls that stuck there as though glued to her pink skin. Perhaps they were. " Did you ever see the like!" ejaculated Mrs. Mat-Andrew. "Yais, madam?" said the languid one. She said it thus to show that she was not Scotch. "Anything I can show you to-day, madam?" "Ye can show me a buiinet," said Mi-<. Mac-Andrew, drily. And- she added, looking to the obvious expcnsiveness of Miss Duncan, "a bunnet at twenty shillings, an' not a penny If Mr*. Mac-Andrew had asked for the Kaiser's head on a charger, Miss Duncan's well-bred astonishment could noc well have been greater. "But 1 assure you, madam, no one is wearing bonnets at present. Bonnets are quite out. ' She gazed absently into the middle dictrince, r.s though following with supercilious eye the vanishing frayed guost of the last of the bonnet-, strings and ..li. "Out. are they? All the ladies in Auehinalloehie wears bunnets. Out. did ye say? Y\*eel, I'm thinkin' the sooner ye get them in again the better. What's a respectable matrix woman o" my years tae wear tae the kirk if it isna a bunnet? Ye'll maybe b 0 advisin' ree tne wear a tock?" Sarcasm was lost on M'--s Duncan. "Toques are out. madam. Quite out. No one is caring toques this season." "Indeed. Aren't they not. now? Weel, wcel, did ye ever hear the likes o' that? An' what do they wear, if so be it they wear anything on their l.eids at all'? Ye'll never be advisin n? tae wiear a brimmed mushroom thing at my age?" But at this point Mar-Andrew threw himself on Miss Duncan's mercy. He was tired of the unfruitful pursuit after bonnets. "Maybe the young leddy has something that wid suit ye jist as wad as a bunnet, Maggie. Yon things are ail« a name, or I'm much mi-taken." He twinkled at Miss Duncan, but elicited no answering spark. Indifferently she ran her finger-tips in a neat arpeggio over the Marcel's wave-, cf her helmetshaped co ffuro. "Much you know aboot it, Jamie, sniffed Mrs. Mac-Andrew. Masculine interference drove her ir.to alliance with the other woman. . . . " Weel, weel, let me see what folks are weann' this season, as ye say," she concluded "The national dress of our Allies ?s influencing millinery to a remarkable extent at present," minced Miss Duncan. She spoke as though she were repeating a lesson. Probab'y the wa*. "Last year it was Belgium. We sold hundreds of kepis, and peasants' bcrrys were ail ihe thing. In the summer it was Italian. I sold a great many Bersaglerieri; very striking. 1 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 nstrakan and yak, to a lady from your neighbourhood." "Jamie, I wouldna wonder if that wou'd be Airs. Carmichael, now. . It would be ilist like her.'' "Yais, madam, that was the lady's name. And very smart she looked. Very sc hiek indeed. Your friend suited the hat q'utc remarkably, madam." "Did ye over hear the like? Fanrv, now! Mrs. Carmichael an' a Cossack hat. . . . Jist let me see a few o' yon hats, if ye please. A wee thing smarter nor the one ye sou. Mrs. Carmichael. . . • I-hill. A\ eel I'l tiae say : t doesna become ye.' : "It all depends on the angle, maiam. . . . A 1 low me A trifle more over the left eye. ... I assure you, Mrs. Carmichael wore hers as if she came straight from the Balkans. Remarkably si-luck." "It seems tae mo that I look like nacthin" cm airth but an auld lien that'-- been oot in the rain a' nie'nt. I'd be real fr-art tae appear in the streets o' Auehinalloehie lookin' this wve~-let alane in the kirk!" " It's wonderful what people get used to." said Mi-s Duncan. Mac-Andrew put in his word here. "Can ye tell me this, now? Woujd that be the tiling people is weann' m Partis ? Because it's this wye, ye see. Tt's nor son Alee. He's in the Goardon H colanders, Kitchener's. A lancecorp'ral. . . . D.C.M. Weel, lie's roniin' lir.nie on leave. There's nao doot about it, when a chap's been in France, an' seen the wye the Frenchies ciac things, he'll line quite new notions o' what's what. Auchinallochie'll look gey an' siua' efter the boolvvards. An' they say the way the French c,ress is a caution'. . . ! I'll in Mrs. Carmichael v.e wis sp. akin' aboot is expeckm' li«;r son tae i lie's in the same regiment wi' Alec . The same idea aboot the bunnet and the like wuii nae doot hao occurred tae her. . . Naturally, we wouidin like Alee tae see his mitlier less well done by nor Alan Carnncbael s. So gie us the best thing ye've got in the ••lop—an' never mine.- aboot Lloy (i.oitre. for yince!" "This is the artie'e I should recommend," pronounced Miss Duncan, showing signs of life at the nearing prospect of ,i .-ale. " Ihe very ili-ng in plea-e ii soldier's eye. \t ry exclusive, tli's style. The moujik crown and nigh '-little-briisli aigrette worn well over tiie left brow are the lest word in schiek 'nis reason. "Nevsky Pro.peit ti is style -s called Comes from i very gc.od hou-e. Positively the dernier ci"." "How much did ye say?" " Tii rty-tive and six, madam . i assure you, you'll never regret » ying a really smai i article like tus Where -hall I send it for your ' "I'l l jist ta' it wi ni" in a paper, tlieak ye," said Mrs. Mac-Andrew. . . . " Fh, bat, Jamie, yon's an a tulike price tae be gie in' for a tiling the siye (if a bird's nest! Ye mind the bunnet 1 had tae wer weddiii' in e'elity-tower .- Weel, it wisna half the prit.e o yon : ;in' we tlioeht it gey an' extravagant at ihe tane.*' "Hoots, woman, never ye muni. 1 m icllin' ve it isna every day we m-t Alec hai-k safe frae ihe tren-.-h. s. 1 • ay. damn the expense