y a man of "elegant fortune" and
turn her back upon Nevis for ever. She really liked Anne and thought
her quite the most admirable girl she had ever met, but she was not of
those that deceive themselves, and frankly admitted that the chief
attraction of her new friend was her almost constant proximity to Lord
Hunsdon.

Miss Ogilvy was petite, with excellent features and slanting black
eyes that gave her countenance a slightly Oriental cast. She wore her
black hair in smooth bands over her ears, _a la Victoria_, and her
complexion was as transparently white as only a West Indian's can be.
To-night she pirouetted before the pier glass with much complacency.
She wore a full flowing skirt of pink satin, with little flounces of
lace and rosettes on the front, puffed tight sleeves, and a corsage of
white illusion, pink bands, flowers, and rosettes. As she settled a
wreath of pink rosebuds on her head and wriggled her shoulders still
higher above her bodice, she felt disposed to hum a tune. She was but
nineteen and Lady Mary was twenty-nine if she was a day.

Anne, who had been assisting Mrs. Nunn's maid to adjust lavender satin
folds and the best point lace shawl, entered at the moment and was
greeted with rapture.

"Dearest Miss Percy! What a vision! A Nereid! A Lorelei! You will
extinguish us all. Poor Lord Hunsdon. Poor Mr. Warner--ah, _ma belle_,
I have eyes in my head. But what a joy to see you in colour. How does
it happen?"

"My aunt insisted while we were in London that I buy one or two
coloured gowns. My father has been dead more than a year. I put this
on to-night to please her, although I have two white evening gowns."

She wore green taffeta flowing open in front over a white embroidered
muslin slip, and trimmed with white fringe. A sash whose fringed ends
hung down in front, girt her small waist. Her arms and neck were bare,
but slipping from the shoulders, carelessly held in the fashion of the
day, was a white crepe scarf fringed with green. She wore her hair in
the usual bunch of curls on either side of her face, but in a higher
knot than usual, and had bound her head with the golden fillet Mrs.
Nunn had pressed upon her in London. Depending from it and resting on
her forehead, was an oblong emerald; Anne had a few family jewels
although she wore no others to-night.

"I vow!" continued Miss Ogilvy, tripping about her, "quite classic!
And at the same time such style! Such _ton_! Madame Lucille made that