Why was Angela Wexler standing on a hassock in The Westing Game?No.

Angela Wexler is standing on a hassock because she is
having her wedding dress altered. The increased height causes the bottom of her dress to
be raised a couple of feet so that the dressmaker can more easily access it. As Mrs.
Baumbauch, with pins in her mouth, crawls around on the floor adjusting the dress's hem,
Angel herself stands "as still and blank-faced pretty as a store-window dummy," looking
out the window at the lake across the way.

Angela is
engaged to be married to Dr. Denton Deere. She is not as excited about the upcoming
union as is her mother, who considers Dr. Deere to be a worthy match. Grace Wexler is a
controlling woman, and she treats Angela like a fragile, precious doll with no mind of
her own. Mrs. Wexler is supervising the fitting from the comfort of a beige velvet
couch, and when Angela cries out while pivoting in a slow quarter turn according to Mrs.
Baumbach's instructions, the overprotective mother assumes that the dressmaker has
pricked her daughter and cautions her to be more careful. Angela, however, has not been
pricked. She had uttered the exclamation because she had noticed smoke coming from the
Westing house chimney, and was surprised, because the house was supposed to be empty
(Chapter 3).