Her Faithful Knight — page 269: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

His Liege Lady. 265 Aylmer had to be her maid and her looking glass, and to adjust her hat, help her with her coat, and presently, when a total transformation had taken place in her ap- pearance, had to accompany her to buy gloves, and“even to advise her as to the color and style of a ready-made jersey and skirt which, at his suggestion, she purchased. Standing by her side, in the full glare of the shop, he could not repress an exclamation of disappointment when he perceived that the beautiful gold-brown hair he had so much admired was missing. Dorothy’s hair was now cut short as a boy’s, and dyed a crude yellow-gold. She caught the look of dismay he directed at her altered coif- fure, and blushed deeply. “Oh, it will grow again,” she said, hastily, answering his look, “and the old color will come back when I leave it alone.” : He could not help smiling at her unexpected naivete. But for the terrible charge hanging over her this would have been to him a time of unqualified joy. To have her in his care, trusting to him, appealing to his taste and judgment, obeying his suggestions, and turning the soft brilliancy of her gray eyes upon him at every moment, sent a delicious tingle of proprietorship through him. Never before had he “been shopping” with a woman. There was something supremely connubial about it, and he found himself laying down the law about the cut of a skirt and the trimming of a hat as though he had been married for years. Dorothy appeared wholly to trust him. She had’ been in desperate need of just such a friend as this, loyal, kind and wise. She could not afford to distrust him, nor did it enter her mind to do so. E Eight months had passed since they had last met, and their acquaintance had been of the slightest; yet now, with a secret upon which the liberty of one of them de- bf Eomicsoo S (E(0) 3