"Indeed, dear Grandmother, it was no vain excuse—’twas the truth," Prue protested. "Yet not the whole truth, for my baggage is still at Bleakmoor, whence we fled in such a hurry that we brought naught away with us but what we traveled in!" "Well? Are there no milliners and mantua-makers in London?" inquired the countess, with an air of surprise. "Several hundred, I should think—and every one of them threatening me with the law’s worst penalties for debt! The wretches! they were eager enough to fling their wares under my feet, when they believed me rich—or likely to be. But now—never a mercer or tailor will trust me for a gown!" "What! not with the prospect of a husband in Parliament?" cried her grandmother, laughing maliciously. "Indeed no, Grannie," sighed Prue piteously; "not unless I pay, at least, for what I order now." "They have learned wisdom at last," retorted Lady Drumloch coldly, "and that is more than can be said of you, who during four or five years of widowhood have jilted half the peerage, made yourself the byword of the court, and now go in fear of the debtors’ prison!" "There was no talk of a debtors’ prison for me when I was Queen Anne’s favorite lady-in-waiting," said Prue, with a touch of arrogance, "but now they only remember that I was banished from court—" "And that the rich lovers you jilted have married other women, while you are still ’the Widow Brooke,’" Lady Drumloch interrupted. "But they will change their tone when they find that the queen has forgiven me," said Prue, ignoring her grandmother’s last thrust, "and now she has sent me such a gracious message by Lady Limerick—but, alack the day!—what am I saying? How can I present myself before Her Majesty without a decent gown to my back? Oh, Grandmother—" She fell on her knees, and would have clasped the pale, slender hand that lay on the coverlet. But Lady Drumloch drew back out of her reach and regarded her with resentful eyes. "Well?" she queried in her driest voice. "What do you propose to do? You have a plan, no doubt, to accomplish what you have set your heart upon." "No—I have no plan," cried Prudence despairingly, "but surely you, dear Grandmother, will not let your little Prue lose her last chance of winning back the queen’s favor, for lack of a few guineas to buy a gown!" and once more she tried to get possession of the reluctant hand.