"Oh dear," said Mabel, "what a fuss you make about nothing, Priscie! Why, the dress is all part of the play. Let us think of you as acting in a play while you are with Aunt Henrietta and me; if you take a part in it, you must dress to fit the part. Oh, put on your lovely grey silk--you will look perfectly sweet in it--and come down to dinner with Annie and me. See Annie; she is in her white muslin already, and looks a perfect darling." "I feel a perfect darling," said Annie. "I love this dress. I adore fine clothes. I am not one little bit ashamed to wear it." "Well," said Priscilla, "Annie can please herself; but if I have to wear other people's clothes, or clothes that don't belong to me and that I have no right whatever to accept, I shall have to give up this trip and go back to England to-morrow." "Oh dear!" said Mabel, "you are queer, Priscilla. I do wish--I do _wish_ I could persuade you." "It is all useless, miss," said Parker in an offended tone; "I have spoken to Miss Weir until I am tired, and she won't see reason.--You see, miss," continued Parker, "the dresses are bought, and if you don't wear them they will be wasted. I understand proper pride, miss, but this does not seem to me reasonable, miss. You will forgive my saying so?" "Yes, Parker, of course I forgive you," said Priscilla; "but all the same," she added, "I shall go on this expedition in my own clothes or I don't go at all." "You will be a fright," said Annie. "I would rather be a fright and myself; I should not feel myself in other people's clothes." "You are very silly," said Mabel. "Can I do nothing?" "I will talk to you afterwards, Priscilla," said Annie.--"Let her alone now, May. She had a bad time crossing, and I dare say would rather go to bed.--You will look at all these things in a different light in the morning, Pris." "We shall have to be off fairly early in the morning," said Mabel, "so you may as well go to bed if you are dead-tired, Priscie.--Parker, will you get some tea and anything else that Miss Weir may require, and have it brought to her room?" "Thank you," said Priscilla. She stood, tall, awkward, and ungracious, before the other two. They felt that she was so, and that there was something in her expression which made them both, deep down in their hearts, feel small. Annie could not help saying to herself, "I wouldn't give up the chance of wearing pretty clothes;" and Mabel was thinking, "If only Priscilla were well dressed she would look handsomer than either of us." A minute later Priscilla turned to leave the room. "I am very sorry, girls," she said.--"Perhaps, Mabel," she added, "as you are leaving in the morning, I ought to see Lady Lushington now." "Oh, dear me!" said Mabel; "you will put Aunt Hennie out enormously if you worry her now." "Still, I think I ought. I am terribly sorry, but she ought to understand immediately my feelings in this matter." "Let her go; let her speak to your aunt," whispered Annie.