silver damask falling to either side of me, and she would give me boxes
of pretty things to play with. To this day I like better than any of her
valuable jewels her pretty trinkets of garnet and amethyst and topaz, of
which she has a great many. They lay in trays in glass-lidded boxes and
I delighted to look at them. Many of them have come to me as Christmas
and birthday gifts since then, and Miss Standish had many of them, for
although she was an invalid she delighted in pretty things and was
greedy for them. My dear godmother is one to give with both hands;
indeed, to value things chiefly for the pleasure of giving them.

Lying on her bed now were a number of garments so pretty that I cried
out in delight. They were all white, yellowed a little with age, and in
some instances with a pattern in colours.

There was a scarf of China crêpe, powdered as thickly as possible with
roses and golden bees. There was an opera cloak made of a beautiful old
Indian shawl. There were several frocks of silk and lace and muslin and
fine woollen. There were finely laced and frilled petticoats and silk
stockings and shoes with paste buckles and a feather fan. Also there
were fichus and lace-edged handkerchiefs and such things, to strike a
young girl dumb with delight.

"They are all for you, Bawn," she said, smiling at me. "They were my
wedding clothes, and they have lain packed away in silver paper all
these years. I have brought them into the light of day for you. They
ought to have been kept for your wedding perhaps, but as there is
nothing definite----"

"Theobald and I shall be quite old before we need think of marriage, if
we ever do," I said. "I don't want to be married. It is nicer when