Instead she had found in her mother’s trunk a gown in pale mauve gauze, which had chiffon softly draped around the décolletage and small sleeves that made it seem less formal than some of the others.
It was a gown that, after buying it, Lady Waltham had complained was too young for her, but because it was her favourite colour, she had sometimes put it on to dine alone with her husband and daughter but had not considered it elaborate enough for any other occasion.
There was a long wrap of the same colour in velvet to wear with it and it was in fact one of the few evening wraps that had not been edged or lined with fur and had therefore escaped being sold.
It was so long since Vernita had worn evening-dress that, when she tried to see herself in the small cracked mirror that hung on the w
