He went away dissatisfied, and the following Monday afternoon Bridget
Rosser paid her first visit to Number 13, Grandison Square. Although
her movements were even and unhurried, her appearance in her
out-of-door garments was conspicuous. The brim of her hat struck
Carrissima as being a shade wider than that of any one else, her dress
closer about the ankles, while yet she wore it without a trace of
anything that could be called vulgarity.

"I should have come even earlier," she said, taking Carrissima's hand;
"but I only got back from Sandbay this morning. I have been staying
since Saturday with my aunts; the dearest little Dresden china aunts in
the world. They are my mother's sisters and they give me no peace.
You see, they are terribly Early Victorian. You were saying that your
brother insisted that no woman under forty is capable of looking after
herself. Well, Aunt Jane and Aunt Frances think honestly that I am
going to perdition as fast as I can."

"I suppose," suggested Carrissima, "they would like you to live with
them?"

"Oh dear! they are quite mad about it. You know everybody is mad about
something! They write every week, but I positively couldn't endure it.
Of course my father did his best to put me off, although I believe his
chief objection was that they had a hatred of tobacco."

"Still," said Carrissima, "I don't suppose you are a confirmed smoker
and they might be good for you. I don't think I am Early Victorian,
but still----"

"Oh, I know!" cried Bridget; "but fancy wasting any little sweetness