'evingly. An' lor'! how you do look yourself, to be sure!"

Indeed, the lace ruffles on her "best" black silk, and the little cap on
her smooth hair, had done a great deal for Miss Bassett; and she had only
just been reproaching herself for her vanity in recognizing this fact.
But Mary Anne's words awakened a new train of thought.

"Is--is Miss Octavia's dress a showy one, Mary Anne?" she inquired. "Dear
me, I do hope it is not a showy dress!"

"I never see nothin' no eleganter, mum," said Mary Anne: "she wants
nothin' but a veil to make a bride out of her--an' a becominer thing she
never has wore."

They heard the soft sweep of skirts at that moment, and Octavia came in.

"There!" she said, stopping when she had reached the middle of the room.
"Is that simple enough?" Miss Belinda could only look at her helplessly.
The "white muslin" was composed almost entirely of Valenciennes lace; the
blue ribbons were embroidered with field-daisies; the air of delicate
elaborateness about the whole was something which her innocent mind could
not have believed possible in orthodox white and blue.

"I don't think I should call it exactly simple," she said. "My love, what
a quantity of lace!"

Octavia glanced down at her _jabots_ and frills complacently.

"There _is_ a good deal of it," she remarked; "but then, it is nice, and
one can stand a good deal of nice Valenciennes on white. They said Worth