The new dresses were charming, everything that the heart of girlhood could desire for the occasion; soft, creamy white, with lemon-coloured ribbons arranged in the most Frenchified style, and with big leghorn hats to match. Even Lady Sarah smiled approval, but the exclamations of the other onlookers were feeble, as compared with Mildred's ecstatic rhapsodies. "Oh, the darlings! Oh, the beauties! Aren't they sweet? Look at the ducky little bows at the elbows, and the little crinkly ruchings at the neck! And the sashes!--oh, goodness, what yards of ribbon!--and yellow silk frills round the bottom--oh-h! And the hats--Bertha, you will look an angel! If I had a dress like that I should sit up all night--I'm sure I should! I could never bring myself to take it off. Oh-h!" Mrs Faucit looked at the fair, flushed face with mingled approval and pity. "Poor, dear child!" she said to herself as she left the room in answer to a summons from a servant; "very few girls of her age would be so entirely free from envy. I wish I had ventured to order a dress for her at the same time; but I was afraid she might not like it. I wonder what she is going to wear?" The same question had occurred to another person, and not being possessed of the same delicacy of mind as the dean's wife, Lady Sarah saw no reason why her curiosity should not be gratified. "And when is your dress to arrive?" she inquired. "What have you ordered for yourself, my dear?" "I--I ordered!" Mildred fairly gasped. The idea of "ordering" anything was so supremely ridiculous. "I haven't ordered anything!" "Indeed! You brought your dress with you, I presume. Still I think, Miss Mildred, that you might have honoured your hostess by making the same preparation for yourself which she thinks it necessary to make for her own daughters." "Why, dear me," cried Mildred, still too much swallowed up with amazement at the extraordinary suggestion to have room for indignation. "Why, dear me, I'd be only too delighted to order a dozen if I could; but where on earth should I get the money to pay for them? I never had a dress like that in my life. I don't suppose I ever shall have one!" "Then what are you going to wear, if one may ask?" Poor Mildred smoothed down the folds of the blue crepe dress. The romp in the garden had not improved its condition; it was looking sadly crumpled and out of condition, but it had been washed a dozen times, and had a delightful knack of issuing from the ordeal a softer and more becoming shade than before. With certain little accessories, already planned, she did not despair of a satisfactory result. "Well, I thought Mrs Faucit would be so kind as to allow the laundress to get up this dress. It is the only suitable thing I have, and I was going to--" "Suitable! That thing! Do you mean to say that you seriously intend to wear the dress you have on to a picnic given by Mrs Newland?"