she kept thinking to herself. 'If they do, they'll be disappointed;
that's all. But I wish my plaid silk gown had been ready.'

She looked at herself in the glass with some anxiety, for the first
time in her life. She saw a slight, lean figure, promising to be tall;
a complexion browner than cream-coloured, although in a year or two it
might have that tint; plentiful curly black hair, tied up in a bunch
behind with a rose--coloured ribbon; long, almond-shaped, soft grey
eyes, shaded both above and below by curling black eye-lashes.

'I don't think I am pretty,' thought Molly, as she turned away from the
glass; 'and yet I am not sure.' She would have been sure, if, instead
of inspecting herself with such solemnity, she had smiled her own sweet
merry smile, and called out the gleam of her teeth, and the charm of
her dimples.

She found her way downstairs into the drawing-room in good time; she
could look about her, and learn how to feel at home in her new
quarters. The room was forty-feet long or so, fitted up with yellow
satin at some distant period; high spindle-legged chairs and pembroke-
tables abounded. The carpet was of the same date as the curtains, and
was threadbare in many places; and in others was covered with drugget.
Stands of plants, great jars of flowers, old Indian china and cabinets
gave the room the pleasant aspect it certainly had. And to add to it,
there were five high, long windows on one side of the room, all opening
to the prettiest bit of flower-garden in the grounds--or what was
considered as such--brilliant-coloured, geometrically-shaped beds,
converging to a sun-dial in the midst. The squire came in abruptly, and
in his morning dress; he stood at the door, as if surprised at the
white-robed stranger in possession of his hearth. Then, suddenly