"See my Johnnie! Him in the pink cap. Bless his 'art, how fine he
looks!" Or "There's Polly Ann with the wreath of daisies!"

"Well now," said Mrs Pinhorn, "I will say Lilac looks as peart and neat
as a little bit of waxworks."

"She wants colour, to my thinking," said Mrs Greenways, to whom this
was addressed.

The Greenways stood a little aloof from the general crowd, dressed with
great elegance. Bella rather looked down on the whole affair. "It's so
mixed," she said; "but we have to go, because Papa don't wish to offend
Mr Leigh."

"I call that a real pretty sight," said Joshua Snell, turning to his
neighbour, who happened to be Peter Greenways. "They've dressed her up
very fitting in all them lilac blooms. But wherever did they get such a
sight of 'em?"

Peter had been forced into a shiny black suit of clothes, a stiff
collar, and a bright blue necktie, that he might not disgrace the
stylish appearance of his mother and sisters. In this attire he felt
even less at his ease than usual, and his arms hung before him as
helplessly as those of a stuffed figure. Perhaps it was owing to this
state of discomfort that he made no other answer to Joshua's remark than
a nervous grin.

"I don't see the Widder White anywheres," continued Joshua, looking
round; "but there's such a throng one can't tell who's who."

Lilac, too, had been looking in vain for her mother amongst the groups
of people she had passed through, and as she took her seat on the
hawthorn-covered throne she gazed wistfully to right and left. No,
Mother was not there. Plenty of well-known faces, but not the one she
wanted most to see.

"She _promised_ to be in time," she said to herself, "and now she'll
miss the crowning." It was a dreadful pity, for Lilac could only be
Queen once in her life, and it seemed to take away the best part of the
pleasure for Mother not to be there. She had been looking forward to it
for so long. What could have kept her away? The Queen's eyes filled
with tears of disappointment, and through them the form of Peter
Greenways seemed to loom unnaturally large, his face redder than ever
above his blue neckcloth, his mouth and eyes wide open. Lilac checked
her tears and remembered her exalted position. She must not cry now;
but directly the crowning and the dance were over she resolved to search
for her mother, and if she were not there to go home and see what had
prevented her coming.

This determination enabl