cultivate accuracy. It was fig-leaves that symbolised its
arrival. The garments, which I think were of skin, developed
later."

"Perhaps," went on Bickley, who had turned the page, "she" (he
referred to the late Mrs. Bastin) "would have preferred her
thus," and he held up another illustration of the same woman.

In this the native belle appeared after conversion, clad in
broken-down stays--I suppose they were stays--out of which she
seemed to bulge and flow in every direction, a dirty white dress
several sizes too small, a kind of Salvation Army bonnet without
a crown and a prayer-book which she held pressed to her middle;
the general effect being hideous, and in some curious way,
improper.

"Certainly," said Bastin, "though I admit her clothes do not
seem to fit and she has not buttoned them up as she ought. But it
is not of the pictures so much as of the letterpress with its
false and scandalous accusations, that I complain."

"Why do you complain?" asked Bickley. "Probably it is quite
true, though that we could never ascertain without visiting the
lady's home."

"If I could afford it," exclaimed Bastin with rising anger, "I
should like to go there and expose this vile traducer of my
cloth."

"So should I," answered Bickley, "and expose these introducers