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amethyst set with it. Now don’t be saying it is too old for me, for I mean only to wear the necklet and one of the bracelets, and they, I am sure, will be just the thing. Especially the necklet, since you said the gown was cut too low.”
    “My dear child,” said Mrs. Newton in tones of fond reproof. “What can you be thinking of? Do you not see that we have visitors? Here is your cousin arrived this hour past, and you not here to welcome her. And I do not think you have met Miss Hetherstone before.”
    The animation faded from Tina’s face but she acknowledged the introduction politely and apologised for her casual behaviour, turning to Alethea to add, “And since my cousin is come to join our family I am sure she would not wish me to stand on ceremony. So stuffy and uncomfortable! The thing is, I had just learned that an old friend is back in Town and in my excitement I forgot everything else. Would you not like me to show you to your room so that you may change your travelling dress?” Her eyes ran thoughtfully over the brown merino. “I daresay Hetty will have unpacked for you by now. Mama, you did say Hetty was to wait upon my cousin, did you not?”
    Mrs. Newton assented, and said that she herself would escort Miss Hetherstone to her room as she knew that the cousins must be longing to exchange girlish secrets.
    If this was in fact the case, both young ladies showed commendable restraint, though Tina did, indeed, smother a giggle as they climbed the stairs, and to Alethea’s enquiring glance said lightly, “You served me well there, cousin. I have been trying to escape from Hetty’s watchful eye these six months past. In Town, you know, one mustn’t set foot out of doors without a maid or a chaperone in attendance. And Hetty is too vigilant by half. I can’t so much as say good morning to a gentleman in the Park but she must enquire into his respectability and wish to know where I met him. While as for exchanging a few harmless remarks in the library while I am choosing Mama’s books, she rings such a peal over me that you would think I was planning an elopement at the least. The trouble is that she was my nurse before she was my maid and she behaves as though I was still a child. But I don’t suppose she’ll put herself about over you. In any case you’ve no acquaintance in Town so it wouldn’t matter.”
    The light contemptuous tone rankled. Only the recollection that she was a guest in her aunt’s house kept Alethea from unbecoming retort, so she was not particularly surprised to discover that the middle-aged abigail who awaited her bore no resemblance to the dragon of Tina’s description. She was a buxom, fresh-complexioned creature with pleasant grey eyes and a friendly smile who welcomed the stranger kindly and said that miss’s dotted muslin would be ready in a minute. She had begged Hebe, madam’s own maid to press it out for her, so crumpled as it was, and she herself anxious to finish the unpacking. “And who did your packing for you, miss, I can’t imagine,” she added severely. “As well have stirred your portmanteaux with a soup ladle. Never did I see such a mixter-maxter. While as for this”—she held up a stained grey dress—“I doubt if even I can make it wearable. Not but what”—she broke off in some confusion.
    “Not but what it would be no great loss?” suggested Alethea, laughing. “You are very right! All my dresses are old fashioned. But Aunt Maria is to buy me an entire new wardrobe. So you may throw that one away with my very good will.”
    Hetty looked suitably shocked at such reckless extravagance though she was privately of the opinion that most of the dresses she had unpacked deserved no better treatment. She was curious, too, to discover the tale that lay behind the hasty, inexpert packing and a bloodstained gown. She eyed Miss Forester’s candid, laughing countenance and ventured to probe the mystery a little further.
    “It’s a blessing those stains