Miss Pendleton nodded. Uncle went “Hmm” and looked down at Miss Pendleton.

“Why?”

“I don’t want to be his wife.”

“Why?”

“I can’t feel anything for him except proper respect for an elder.”

Gerald Pendleton looked at his niece’s face. Eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, ears, hair – all of it thoroughly. As if examining an object. Miss Pendleton felt something like humiliation from her uncle’s gaze but quietly endured it.

Finally, her uncle spoke.

“I can understand why you feel vanity every time you look in the mirror, but it’s not good to measure yourself too much. You’re an illegitimate child with no dowry. As I said before, if you’re expecting something from me, you’d better wake up from that dream.”

Miss Pendleton spoke while maintaining her composure as much as possible.

“Don’t worry. I’ve never expected such things.”

“Then why don’t you accept Tom’s proposal?”

Miss Pendleton shook her head.

“That’s my private matter. I have no obligation to explain it to you.”

“How insolent.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle,”

Miss Pendleton apologized dryly and then continued.

“But you, as a dignified gentleman, should know well. A lady has the freedom to refuse a proposal, and the right to be respected for that decision. I apologize for my rudeness, but I am still a lady. Please respect my rights, Uncle.”

Uncle glared at his niece for a moment. His expression clearly showed that his niece’s words had offended him.

But there was nothing wrong with what his niece had said. It was the strongest right a lady could enjoy in high society. The freedom to refuse courtship. As a gentleman, he shouldn’t probe into that.

As Miss Pendleton had expected, her uncle took a step back.

“There’s no need to remind me of a gentleman’s duty, Laura Pendleton. I know as much about a lady’s rights as you do. However, I’ll give you advice as your uncle. It’s not for someone in your position to play hard to get and raise your value by repeatedly rejecting suitors. It’s true that Tom Price is much older than you, but you should be grateful that he’s interested in you given your situation. Tease him a bit and then accept Tom’s proposal.”

Uncle went into his room. Miss Pendleton stood there for a while. A sense of humiliation churned in her stomach. Why did Mr. Price and her uncle consider her will as just a shallow trick to raise her value? Because she had missed her prime marriage age and had no money?

She bit her lip. No matter what they said, she couldn’t break her conviction about marriage. As much as she had no intention of marrying above her station, she had no intention of selling herself to any man for money.

The act of nesting with a man who was emotionally and temperamentally incompatible. She had seen countless cases where such marriages brought unhappiness.

She sighed deeply and returned to her room.

“Well, how about this, Miss Pendleton?”

Miss Jensen approached Miss Pendleton gracefully and twirled around. Miss Pendleton, sitting on the sofa, looked at her dress. A red satin dress decorated with black feathers here and there. A red hat with a black veil that matched the set.

“It looks like an opera costume.”

At Miss Pendleton’s words, Miss Jensen threw the hat she was wearing onto the bed and lay down spread-eagled. With a rustling sound, the voluminous skirt crumpled under Miss Jensen’s body.

“You’ll ruin the dress.”

“So what if it’s ruined? I can’t wear it out anyway.”

Miss Jensen grumbled.

“I definitely thought it would work in London when I brought it. The yellow satin dress too. And the black evening dress, and the green bustle dress! To think that the most modest clothes in New York high society would become stage costumes in London!”

“Modest clothes… I don’t know, but New York high society must be quite a place.”

Miss Pendleton mumbled in a tired voice.

When Miss Jensen first asked her to look at the dress she would wear to the ball the next day, she thought her job would just be sitting and looking at clothes while making a few comments. She didn’t know then what state the dresses in the trunk Miss Jensen had brought were in.

Miss Pendleton recalled the dresses Miss Jensen had put on so far. A yellow satin dress with white net decorations hanging all over, a black evening dress densely embroidered with bright red embroidery. A green bustle dress with three-dimensional rose decorations asserting their presence.

They were all items so gaudy that just looking at them made one dizzy.

When Miss Pendleton first saw the dress Miss Jensen put on, she laughed thinking it was a joke. But when she realized Miss Jensen was serious, she became perplexed, and then lost for words seeing the state of the dresses that followed.

They looked like stage costumes. Every single one of them.

It was a troublesome situation. While a dress was essential for going to a ball, every dress was in a state that would surely make her a laughingstock if worn out.

And as for getting a new one made, currently all the dressmakers in London were barely managing to make clothes for their reserved customers. There was no place to get a decent dress.

“Oh my, Miss Pendleton. You’re here!”

Just as Miss Pendleton was holding her head in deep thought, a middle-aged lady entered Miss Jensen’s room. Miss Jensen, still lying down, introduced her.

“This is Mrs. Nigsley, my godfather’s sister.”

“Hello, Mrs. Nigsley.”

“Oh, my! Pl-pleased to meet you, Miss Pendleton! To think you’d come to such a humble place…”

The middle-aged Mrs. Nigsley, not knowing what to do, stamped her feet. To her, a nouveau riche living in the outskirts of London, Miss Pendleton from an earl’s family living on Grosvenor Street was as good as royalty.

“What are you saying? I should be the one apologizing for visiting so abruptly when the hostess isn’t here.”

“No, no. If only Joanne had given me proper notice in advance, I would have prepared and welcomed you grandly. I hope our servants didn’t commit any rudeness…?”

“I received impeccable hospitality. Please calm down.”

“Yes, calm down, Auntie. If you keep acting like this, it’ll make Miss Pendleton uncomfortable instead. Stop it and help me with my dress problem. It’s at disaster level right now.”

“Huh? What’s the matter?”

“None of my dresses are wearable, can you believe it?”

“Why? They all looked pretty.”

“They say they don’t fit London high society.”

“Really? Hmm, when I first went out, everyone dressed not much differently from this.”

“When did you ever go out in high society, Auntie?”

“About 30 years ago?”

“Goodness, was it that long ago?”

“Yes. I had just gotten married then.”

Mrs. Nigsley recalled that time. Her first foray into high society with her husband who had made a sudden fortune in publishing. Memories stained with cold treatment, mockery, and humiliation. They thought they could infiltrate anywhere with money, but no matter how hard they tried, they got nothing but whispers of being nouveau riche.

She wisely chose to give up on high society quickly and grow old comfortably mingling with other nouveau riche ladies like herself.

Still, she retained a lingering admiration for the nobility on one side. Especially when she saw a lady from a prestigious family like Miss Pendleton, her yearning for nobility would burst out uncontrollably.

She observed Miss Pendleton’s figure with fluttering heart, barely daring to look directly, only glancing sideways.

Meanwhile, while Mrs. Nigsley and Miss Jensen were talking, Miss Pendleton, who had been pondering, soon came up with a solution to the dress problem in her mind.

“Is there a skilled chambermaid in this house, madam?”

Startled by the sudden question from the noble young lady, Mrs. Nigsley stammered.

“Ah, um, there is a deft-handed girl in the laundry room, but… still, her skills aren’t that great…”

“If it’s not too much trouble, could you please call that servant?”

At Miss Pendleton’s request, Mrs. Nigsley immediately instructed a servant outside the door to bring the chambermaid.

In the meantime, Miss Pendleton entered Miss Jensen’s dressing room. She saw the yellow satin dress carelessly discarded in one corner of the room. She brought it back.

“Let’s remove all the net decorations from this yellow satin dress. And then we’ll try adding other decorations.”

Miss Jensen, who had been lying down, half-raised her upper body.

“Add decorations? You mean to refashion it?”

“Yes. With so little time, that’s the only way.”

With a knock-knock sound, a middle-aged maid entered. It was the chambermaid Miss Pendleton had been looking for. Miss Pendleton asked her to remove all the decorations attached to the dress. Meanwhile, she opened a small trunk she had brought, just in case, which was placed next to the sofa.

Inside were all sorts of laces, frills, tulle, and a sewing kit.

“Miss Pendleton, what are these?”

“These are materials we use at home when refashioning dresses.”

“You refashion and use them? Instead of getting new ones made?”

“I don’t usually discard clothes unless they’re quite worn out.”

The chambermaid removed all the decorations attached to the dress. With all the decorations gone, it was an ordinary yellow satin dress. Miss Pendleton looked at the dress thoughtfully and then began examining the laces she had brought. She chose the most vibrant laces and started placing them on the dress one by one.

All the women in the room held their breath and watched Miss Pendleton. Miss Pendleton alternated between rose patterns and camellia patterns before making a decision.

“The camellia flower pattern would be best. It matches well with the dress material and is of the highest quality. Now, please attach this to the border of the dress.”

The chambermaid immediately got to work. Meanwhile, Miss Pendleton went back into Miss Jensen’s wardrobe and started rummaging through her accessory box. She came out after 10 minutes with gloves, shoes, and hair accessories that would match the dress.

Soon, the deft-handed chambermaid attached elegant lace where the bizarre net decorations had been. Miss Pendleton handed the dress and the accessories she had chosen to Miss Jensen and told her to put them all on and come out.

A moment later, Miss Jensen walked out of the dressing room. She looked completely different from before. A bright yellow satin dress with dignified camellia lace attached. Pearl-colored ball gloves with tiny jewels, cute black shoes with yellow ribbon decorations. A silver rose decoration pinned to her upswept hair.

Mrs. Nigsley exclaimed.

“My goodness, Joanne looks like a different person, so refined!”

Miss Jensen covered her mouth with her hand and laughed softly.

“Oh my, really? I wonder if I might be courted by another London gentleman at this rate!”

Mrs. Nigsley burst into laughter at her words.

Instead of laughing along, Miss Pendleton looked intently at Miss Jensen. She went into Miss Jensen’s dressing room and came out again making rustling sounds. In her hands were a translucent shawl that made crackling noises and a diamond brooch.

Miss Pendleton attached the brooch to Miss Jensen’s dress and then draped the shawl around her. Then she stood back and looked once more. Elegance was added to splendor.

‘Yes, this is exactly the look suitable for a ball.’