coverlet of old Italian lace lined with pale blue silk; while the down
pillows at the head with their embroidered and lace-trimmed slips
completed the transformation of what had been a bed, and was now almost
a work of art.

And the dressing-table! Nora went up to it in amazement. It too was
spread with lace lined with silk, and covered with a toilet-set of
mother-of-pearl and silver. Every brush and bottle was crested and
initialled. The humble looking-glass, which Nora, who was something of a
carpenter, had herself mended before her cousin's arrival, was standing
on the floor in a corner, and a folding mirror framed in embossed silver
had taken its place.

"I say, do you always travel with these things?" The girl stood
open-mouthed, half astonished, half contemptuous.

"What things?"

Nora pointed to the toilet-table and the bed.

Connie's expression showed an answering astonishment.

"I have had them all my life," she said stiffly. "We always took our own
linen to hotels, and made our rooms nice."

"I should think you'd be afraid of their being stolen!" Nora took up one
of the costly brushes, and examined it in wonder.

"Why should I be? They're nothing. They're just like other people's!"
With a slight but haughty change of manner, the girl turned away, and