When the door swung back she gave a little cry of delight. There was a bright fire in the grate, and there were wax-candles, with rose-coloured shades, lit on the dressing-table. The room glowed rosily before us. I led the way to the dressing-table. On the glass was a piece of paper, on which was written in delicate, spidery, old hand-writing. _This room and all it contains, a gift to Esther Brandon, from her old godmother._ Esther gazed at the piece of paper with her eyes full of tears, yet shining, and her lips parted. "What! all this for me!" she said incredulously. "Yes," said I, "and more,"--for I had been using my eyes. On the back of a big chair by the fire was a cosy little dressing-gown of soft pink stuff; and before the chair a pair of pink silk-wadded slippers thrust themselves invitingly forward. We had hardly taken these in when our eyes wandered to the bed. I took a candle hastily from the dressing-table and held it high. There lay a most lovely frock, short-waisted and long-skirted, of palest yellow silk. Beside it a silk evening cloak, of the same colour. A little away stood a pair of silk shoes, flanked by silk stockings. Over the pillows lay an armful of under-linen, all laced and frilled in the daintiest way. Not one thing had been forgotten that Esther should wear that evening. I left Esther staring, and went round the room peeping here and there. Nothing had been forgotten. On the toilet-table, or put away tidily in the drawers, were all the requirements of a girl's toilette,--hair-pins, pins, delicate soaps, perfumes, and all manner of things. Nothing seemed to have been forgotten. "I feel like an enchanted princess," said Esther at last. "But, oh, Hilda, isn't it too much? Is it right to accept so much?" "I wish Lady O'Brien were my godmother," said I. Just then Martha knocked at the door to know if Miss Brandon would have her hair done, so we had to adjourn the discussion. [Illustration: "GARNETS!" SAID THE OLD LADY, PEERING CLOSELY. "THEY ARE NO GARNETS."] Martha was certainly a very clever maid. She piled Esther's hair in the most beautiful soft masses round her head, seeming to bring out the bronze shades that I think are so great a beauty in it. She did everything so quickly and expeditiously that in a very little while Esther was dressed, and looking so grand and stately a young lady as she stood in the middle of her little room that I could hardly recognize her. "I was to tell my lady when you were ready, Miss," she said. "She wants to see you before you put on your cloak." And then she went out, closing the door. I clasped on Esther's neck the collar and pendant of garnets, and put the stars in her hair. They looked lovely with the pale yellow, and Esther, standing there with her head bent, I really thought must be one of the most beautiful creatures possible.