Betty afterwards felt, deep down in her heart, that this whole day was a wonderful dream. She was starvingly hungry, to begin with, and enjoyed the excellent lunch that Mrs. Haddo ordered at the confectioners. She felt a sense of curious joy and fear as she looked at one or two of the great pictures in the Wallace Collection, and so excited and uplifted was she altogether that she scarcely noticed when they returned to the shops and the coarse, ugly black serges were exchanged for pretty coats and skirts of the finest cloth, for neat little white blouses, for pretty shoes and fine stockings. She did not even object to the hat, which, with its plume of feathers, gave a look of distinction to her little face. She was not elated over her fine clothes, neither was she annoyed about them. "Now, Miss Watts," said Mrs. Haddo in a cheerful tone, "you will hurry with the rest of the young ladies' things, and send them to me as soon as ever you can. I shall want their evening-dresses, without fail, by the beginning of next week." They all went down into the street. Sylvia found herself casting shy glances at Betty. It seemed to her that her sister was changed--that she scarcely knew her. Dress did not make such a marked difference in Hetty's appearance; but Hetty too looked a different girl. "And now we are going to the Zoological Gardens," said Mrs. Haddo, "where we may find some spiders like Dickie, and where you will see all sorts of wonderful creatures." "Oh Mrs. Haddo!" exclaimed Betty. They spent an hour or two in that place so fascinating for children, and arrived back at Haddo Court just in time for supper. "We have had a happy day, have we not?" said Mrs. Haddo, looking into Betty's face and observing the brightness of her eyes. "Very happy, and it was you who gave it to us," answered the girl. "And to-morrow," continued Mrs. Haddo, "must be just as happy--just as happy--because lessons will begin; and to an intelligent and clever girl there is nothing in the world so delightful as a difficulty conquered and knowledge acquired." That evening, when the Vivian girls entered the room where supper was served, every girl in the upper school turned to look at them. The change in their appearance was at once complete and arresting. They walked well by nature. They were finely made girls, and had not a scrap of self-consciousness. "Oh, I say, Fan," whispered Susie in her dear friend's ear, "your cousins will boss the whole school if this sort of thing goes on. To be frank with you, Fan, I have fallen in love with that magnificent Betty myself. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her." "You ought not to whisper in English, ought you?" was Fanny's very significant response, uttered in the German tongue.