date, talking over a party. All three were complete gentlewomen in
air and manners, though Betty had high cheek-bones, a large nose,
rough complexion, and red hair, and her countenance was more loveable
and trustworthy than symmetrical. The dainty decorations of youth
looked grotesque upon her, and she was so well aware of the fact as
to put on no more than was absolutely essential to a lady of birth
and breeding. Harriet (pronounced Hawyot), the next in age, had a
small well-set head, a pretty neck, and fine dark eyes, but the small-
pox had made havoc of her bloom, and left its traces on cheek and
brow. The wreck of her beauty had given her a discontented, fretful
expression, which rendered her far less pleasing than honest, homely
Betty, though she employed all the devices of the toilette to conceal
the ravages of the malady and enhance her remaining advantages of
shape and carriage.

There was an air of vexation about her as her father asked, "Well,
how many conquests has my little Aurelia made?" She could not but
recollect how triumphantly she had listened to the same inquiry
after her own first appearance, scarcely three short years ago. Yet
she grudged nothing to Aurelia, her junior by five years, who was for
the first time arrayed as a full-grown belle, in a pale blue, tight-
sleeved, long-waisted silk, open and looped up over a primrose skirt,
embroidered by her own hands with tiny blue butterflies hovering over
harebells. There were blue silk shoes, likewise home-made, with silver
buckles, and the long mittens and deep lace ruffles were of Betty's
fabrication. Even the dress itself had been cut by Harriet from old
wedding hoards of their mother's, and made up after the last mode
imported by Madam Churchill at the Deanery.

The only part of the equipment not of domestic handiwork was the