o term it. Lionel laughed, as he
crossed the room to throw the door wider by way of welcome.

She wore a light shot pink dress of peculiar material, a sort of
cashmere, very fine and soft. Looking at it one way it was pink, the
other, mauve; the general shade of it was beautiful. Lady Verner could
have sighed again: if the wearer was deficient in style, so also was the
dress. A low body and short sleeves, perfectly simple, a narrow bit of
white lace alone edging them: nothing on her neck, nothing on her arms,
no gloves. A child of seven might have been so dressed. Lady Verner
looked at her, her brow knit, and various thoughts running through her
brain. She began to fear that Miss Tempest would require so much
training as would give her trouble.

Lucy saw the look, and deemed that her attire was wrong.

"Ought I to have put on my best things--my new silk?" she asked.

My new silk! My best things! Lady Verner was almost at a loss for an
answer. "You have not an extensive wardrobe, possibly, my dear?"

"Not very," replied Lucy. "This was my best dress, until I had my new
silk. Mrs. Cust told me to put this one on for dinner to-day, and she
said if Lady--if you and Miss Verner dressed very much, I could change
it for the silk to-morrow. It is a _beautiful_ dress," Lucy added,
looking ingenuously at Lady Verner, "a pearl gray. Then I have my
morning dresses, and then my white for dancing. Mrs. Cust said that
anything you found deficient in my wardrobe it would be better for you
to supply, than for her, as you would be the best judge of what I should
require."

"Mrs. Cust does not pay much attention to dress, probably," observed
Lady Verner coldly. "She is a clergyman's wife. It is sad taste when
people neglect themselves, whatever may be the duties of their station."

"But Mrs. Cust does not neglect herself," spoke up Lucy, a surprised
look upon her face. "She is always dressed nicely--not fine, you know.
Mrs. Cust says that the lower classes have become so fine nowadays, that
nearly the only way you may know a lady, until she speaks, is by her
quiet simplicity."

"My dear, Mrs. Cust should say elegant simplicity," corrected Lady
Verner. "She ought to know. She is of good family."

Lucy humbly acquiesced. She feared she herself must be too "quiet" to
satisfy Lady Verner. "Will you be so kind, then, as to get me what you
please?" she asked.

"My daughter will see to all these things, Lucy," replied Lady Verner.
"S