across her remarkably pretty mouth.

They were both exceedingly pretty girls. Fanny the elder wore long
glossy curls,--for I write, oh reader, of bygone days, as long ago as
that, when ladies wore curls if it pleased them so to do, and
gentlemen danced in pumps, with black handkerchiefs round their
necks,--yes, long black, or nearly black silken curls; and then she
had such eyes;--I never knew whether they were most wicked or most
bright; and her face was all dimples, and each dimple was laden with
laughter and laden with love. Kate was probably the prettier girl of
the two, but on the whole not so attractive. She was fairer than her
sister, and wore her hair in braids; and was also somewhat more
demure in her manner.

In spite of the special injunctions of Mr. O'Conor senior, it was
impossible not to loiter for five minutes over the drawing-room fire
talking to these houris--more especially as I seemed to know them
intimately by intuition before half of the five minutes was over.
They were so easy, so pretty, so graceful, so kind, they seemed to
take it so much as a matter of course that I should stand there
talking in my red coat and muddy boots.

"Well; do go and dress yourselves," at last said Fanny, pretending to
speak to her brothers but looking more especially a me. "You know
how mad papa will be. And remember Mr. Green, we expect great things
from your dancing to-night. Your coming just at this time is such a
Godsend." And again that soupcon of a smile passed over her face.

I hurried up to my room, Peter and Jack coming with me to the door.
"Is everything right?" said Peter, looking among the towels and