Warning: If you have a visual impairment, use the manuscript transcript version including the Lucy Maud Montgomery’s foot notes and contextual annotation references.

Chapter 33

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all hope of dimples. My dimple-dream will never come true; but so many of my dreams have that I mustn’t complain. Am I all ready now?”

“All ready,” assured Diana, as Marilla appeared in the doorway, a gaunt figure with grayer hair than of yore and no fewer angles, but with a much softer face. “Come right in and look at our elocutionist, Marilla. Doesn’t she look lovely?”F18

“She looks neat and proper. I like that way of fixing her hair. But I expect she’ll run ruin that dress driving over there in the dust (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)and dew(end superscript) with it, and it looks most too thin for these damp nights. Organdy’s the most unserviceable stuff in the world anyhow, and I told Matthew so when he got it. But there is no use in saying

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note F18
Marilla emitted a sound between a sniff and a grunt.


PHOTO ANNOTATION

short newsprint article in one squat column

"Organdy's the most unserviceable stuff in the world anyhow": Organdy is a stiff, but lightweight fabric. It was ideal for spring and summer dress wear since it was ethereally light; but, as Marilla points out, it was not serviceable for everyday wear.

The Charlottetown Daily Examiner published a "Dress Parade" column in the spring of 1897 that shares fashions and ideas for spring wardrobes; it notes that "there is a rage for tucked bodices of silk or very light wool materials, and for the summer organdies, swiss muslins, [I]ndia linens and other thin textiles" (April 14, 1897).
Island Newspapers