The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush

And she had a good excuse for dropping in on Fannie. The two of them were responsible for the upcoming Dahlias Garden Tour, and she had a list of organizational details that they needed to iron out. At some point, she thought, she would try to work Mr. Duffy into the conversation and see what developed.

So on Wednesday, Verna took off a few minutes early at lunchtime and walked across the street to Champaign’s Darling Chapeaux, on the west side of Rosemont. The hat shop, which had been closed while Fannie was in Atlanta, was small but very pretty inside, like a tiny jewel box. One wall held shelves and shelves of Fannie’s beautiful creations, romantic, floppy-brimmed concoctions ornamented with clouds of tulle and bouquets of silk flowers laced with satin ribbons. Most of Fannie’s hats were like those worn by nineteenth-century Southern ladies, rather than the sleek, smart, head-hugging felt cloches that were all the rage in New York and Paris. The Darling ladies loved the fanciful hats, and so did the Darling men, including Charlie Dickens, that crusty curmudgeon, who had once been heard to say that a lady’s hat should make her look like a lady, not like a German artillery officer.

Some of Fannie’s millinery confections were displayed on hatstands in the white-curtained window, others on tall hat racks, others simply stacked on the shelves. Against the far wall, under a large, gilt-framed mirror, stood a small table and boudoir chair, both skirted in white organza. There, milady could try on one hat after another until she found exactly what she was looking for—which could take quite a while, given the wide selection. Shelves on the third wall held bolts of tulle and silk organza and veiling, along with trays of gold and silver ornaments, clear glass bowls displaying bouquets of silk flowers and coils of colored ribbons, and vases filled with fantastic feathers of all colors and sizes, from frothy ostrich feathers down to the tiniest yellow canary feather. Even though they didn’t have much money to spend on hats, every Darling woman thought that Champaign’s Chapeaux was a magical place and they loved to pop in. Still, everyone wondered (privately or to their friends, but never of course to Fannie) how a milliner managed to stay in business in such a small town. The Depression had already closed two hat shops in the much larger city of Montgomery. Fannie’s survival was a mystery.

Verna herself was not fond of fanciful hats—they made her feel like a vaudeville impersonator. She didn’t like cloches, either, so she was in the habit of going bareheaded. But before Fannie went off to Atlanta, she had made a très chic blue felt beret for Verna, and she was wearing it today. It went perfectly with her cream-colored blouse and trim gray jacket and skirt.

When Verna opened the door and stepped into the shop, she saw Fannie at her workstation, sewing an ostrich feather on a wide-brimmed white straw hat. She was not a conventionally pretty woman, but Verna thought she looked quite lovely just now, with the light from the front window brushing her cheek and softly tangling in her curly russet-brown hair. She wore a simple dress of pale yellow dotted swiss, with cap sleeves and a white Peter Pan collar. It made her look young and vulnerable.

“Verna!” Fannie exclaimed, laying her work aside. “It’s so good to see you again!” She jumped up and gave Verna an impulsive hug. “I’ve missed you! And I love the way you look in that blue beret!”

That was Fannie, quick and affectionate and at the same time shy and modest, in a fetching, old-fashioned way. Somehow, Verna couldn’t quite square what she knew of her friend with Rona Jean’s report that Fannie had wanted Alvin Duffy to kiss her and then cried her heart out when he hadn’t. Had Fannie’s months in Atlanta changed her?

“I like the way it looks, too,” Verna said. “And I’ve missed you, Fannie. It’s awfully good to have you back in town. Listen, if you have a moment, I wonder if we could look over this list of things that need to be done for the garden tour?” She took the list out of her purse.