Bassett make her entrance.

"I should think it would be rather a trial, even to such a girl as she is
said to be," remarked one matron.

"It is but natural that she should feel that Lady Theobald will regard
her rather critically, and that she should know that American manners
will hardly be the thing for a genteel and conservative English country
town."

"We saw her a few days ago," said Lucia, who chanced to hear this
speech, "and she is very pretty. I think I never saw any one so very
pretty before."

"But in quite a theatrical way, I think, my dear," the matron replied, in
a tone of gentle correction.

"I have seen so very few theatrical people," Lucia answered sweetly,
"that I scarcely know what the theatrical way is, dear Mrs. Burnham. Her
dress was very beautiful, and not like what we wear in Slowbridge; but
she seemed to me to be very bright and pretty, in a way quite new to me,
and so just a little odd."

"I have heard that her dress is most extravagant and wasteful," put in
Miss Pilcher, whose educational position entitled her to the
condescending respect of her patronesses. "She has lace on her morning
gowns, which"--

"Miss Bassett and Miss Octavia Bassett," announced Dobson, throwing
open the door.