ing dress you have got,

, pausing with my hand on t

dresses are perfectly sweet; but I think if there is one that suits you rat

a great deal too dr

e is the pa

ressy

esses-but then you look ex

o make myself look as plain and uninteresting and unpretentio

n which I was born. But never mind. Just because my father had won the Victoria Cross would his daughter think nothing degrading which meant an honourable and honest livelihood. So I hastily donned a black net dress which was not too fashionable, and without any ornament whatsoever, not even a string of pearls round my neck, ran downstairs. But the dress wa

ot greatly excited, a faded manner. When she was thinking of herself she was painfully affected; when she was not thinking of herself she was hopelessly vulgar. Her daughter was a downright buxom young person, who quite held her own. Neither Mrs. nor M

ou. Won't you both sit down? I hope you have

ed at me, her eyes growing big wit

. I am one of the o

of relief in her voice. It did not matter how stylish Miss Wickham looke

into her commonest manner. "You must not sit too near the fi

he fire, and did not take the lea

rmstrong, turning to me again. "Well, I am sur

think something in my steady gaze disquieted her, fo

u're one of the most stylish young ladi

on. "I thought she was a duchess at

"I didn't know," she added, "we were coming to a place of this kind. It is very gratifying

was a lady. She was an everyday sort of little body to look at, but had the kindest heart in the world. She was neither young nor old, neither handsome nor the reverse

the three Miss Frosts, and some other people, who were all taking possession of us and our house. Oh, it was confusing on that first night. I could scarcely bear it myself. I had never guessed that the very boarders would look down on us, that just because we were ladies they would consider our position an equivocal one, and treat us accordingly. I hoped that by-and-by it might be all right, but now I knew that mother and I were passing through the most trying period of this un

speak, and you are so different from most landladies that mother and I feel a little confused about it. Oh, thank you; you wish to know if we are comfortable. We are fairly so, all things considered; we don't mind our

en gown, and a tall man. I glanced at him for a puzzled moment, feeling sure that I had seen him before, and yet not being quite certain. He had good fea

ent, had to vanish nonplussed into a distant corner of the drawing-room. I saw by the way that young lady's eyes blazed that she was now intensely excited. Mother and I had startled and confused her a good deal, and Mr. Randolph finished the dazzling impre

ere, there, and everywhe

. Randolph, Miss W

ok my hand and brought

"this is our youngest host

, courteous tone, scarcely glanced at me, an