"Can you imagine it, Vanna? I sometimes wish he were not quite so good! It's aggravating for a sinner like me to be shown up continually against such a contrast. And sometimes it lands one in such fixes... I could tell you such stories of this year!" She snuggled back against her cushions. "Ah, it _is_ good to have you here. I have so longed for a girl to talk to... The first six months we went about a great deal, paying visits to his friends. The first time I asked him to describe the people, as I knew them only by name. `Oh, Meg!' he said, `Meg is the simplest of creatures: kindly, and easy-going as you find 'em. You'll feel at home in five minutes. No fuss, no ceremony. The sort of house where you feel absolutely at home.' Well, what would _you_ expect from that description? I saw a vision of a suburban villa, and a stout, frumpy woman with a fat smile, and packed a modest little semi-evening frock to let her down gently. My dear! it was a mansion, and she was the very smartest creature I have ever beheld. The first glimpse of her in afternoon clothes took away my breath; but there was worse to come. She had asked a dozen people to dinner to meet us, and while we were dressing--it was a summer evening, and quite light--I saw carriages bowling up to the door, and visions in satin dresses trailing up the steps. There was nothing for it; I put on my wretched little frock, eating my heart out the while at the thought of all my trousseau grandeurs lying useless at home, and descended--the bride, the guest of honour--the worst dressed woman in the room! Can you imagine my suffering?" Vanna smiled. She could; and also the manner in which Jean would upbraid her husband after the fray. "And Robert? What had he to say? How did he look when he first saw you alone?" "Radiant, my dear. Beaming! Absolutely, utterly content. Blankly astonished and dismayed to find that I was not the same. Utterly unconscious that my dress had been any different from the rest. Blindly convinced that there had not been one in the room to touch it!" They both laughed, a tender indulgence shining in their eyes. It was the look with which women condone the indiscretion of a child; but Jean was still anxious to expound her own side of the situation.