matter a few seconds, "I've got one that would do, if it's warm enough
to wear it. I bought it in New York, but it came from Paris. I've never
worn it yet."

"It would be nicer than any thing else, my love," said Miss Belinda,
delighted to find her difficulty so easily disposed of. "Nothing is so
charming in the dress of a young girl as pure simplicity. Our Slowbridge
young ladies rarely wear any thing but white for evening. Miss Chickie
assured me, a few weeks ago, that she had made fifteen white-muslin
dresses, all after one simple design of her own."

"I shouldn't think that was particularly nice, myself," remarked Octavia
impartially. "I should be glad one of the fifteen didn't belong to me. I
should feel as if people might say, when I came into a room, 'Good
gracious, there's another!'"

"The first was made for Miss Lucia Gaston, who is Lady Theobald's niece,"
replied Miss Belinda mildly. "And there are few young ladies in
Slowbridge who would not emulate her example."

"Oh!" said Octavia, "I dare say she is very nice, and all that; but I
don't believe I should care to copy her dresses. I think I should draw
the line there."

But she said it without any ill-nature; and, sensitive as Miss Belinda
was upon the subject of her cherished ideals, she could not take offence.

When the eventful evening arrived, there was excitement in more than one
establishment upon High Street and the streets in its vicinity. The
stories of the diamonds, the gold-diggers, and the silver-mines, had been