Once she had said unwittingly,

"What a nice little figure you are getting, Meg; this new
dressmaker certainly fits better than Miss Quinn"; and foolish
Meg, with a throb of delight, had redoubled her efforts.

Lynx-eyed Judy would have found her out long ago, and laughed her
to utter shame, but unfortunately for Meg's constitution she
was still at school, it being now the third month of her
absence.

Aldith only lived about twenty minutes' walk from Misrule, so
the two girls were always together. Twice a week they went down
to town in the river-boat to learn how to inquire, in polite
French, "Has the baker's young daughter the yellow hat, brown
gloves, and umbrella of the undertaker's niece?" And twice a
week, after they had answered irrelevantly, "No, but the surgeon
had some beer, some mustard, and the dinner-gong," Aldith conducted
her friend slowly up and down that happy hunting-ground of
Sydney youth and fashion--the Block. "Just see how many hats
I'll get taken off," Miss Aldith would say as they started; and
by the end of the time Meg would say longingly, "How lovely it must
be to know crowds of gentlemen like you do."

Sometimes one or two of them would stop and exchange a word or two,
and then Aldith would formally introduce Meg; often, however, the
latter, who was sharp enough for all her foolishness, would fancy
she detected a patronizing, amused air in these gentlemen's
manners. As, indeed, there often was; they were chiefly men
whom Aldith had met at dances and tennis in her own home; and