o keep it always.'

'Cast-off clothes! That's the insolence of these swells,' said Ida. 'I
wonder you had not the spirit to refuse.'

'Sour grapes,' muttered Herbert; while her mother sighed--'Ah, that's
what we come to!'

'Must not I wear it, mamma?' said Constance, who had a certain attachment
to the beautiful and comfortable garment. 'She told me she had only worn
it once in London, and she was so very kind.'

'Oh, if you call it kindness,' said Ida, 'I call it impertinence.'

'If you had only heard--' faltered Constance.

'No, no,' said their mother, 'you could not refuse, of course, my dear,
and no one here will know. It becomes her very well too. Doesn't it,
Ida?'

Ida made a snort. 'If people choose to make a little chit of a
schoolgirl ridiculous by dressing her out like that!' she said.

'There isn't time now before church,' said Constance almost tearfully,
'or I would take it off.'

'No such thing,' said Herbert. 'Come on, Conny. You shall walk with me.
You look stunning, and I want Westhaven folk to see for once what a lady
is like.'

Constance was very glad to be led away from Ida's comments, and resolved
that her blue velvet should not see the light again at Westhaven; but she
did not find this easy to carry out; for, perhaps for the sake of teasing
Ida, Herbert used to inquire after it, and insist on her wearing it, and
her mother liked to see her, and to show her, in it. It was only Ida who
seemed unable to help saying something disagreeable, till, almost in
despair, Constance offered to lend the bone of contention; but Lady Adela
was a small woman, and Constance would never be on so large a scale as
her sister, so that the jacket refused to be transferred except at the
risk of being spoilt by alteration; and here Mrs. Morton interfered, 'It
would never do to have them say at Northmoor that "Lady Morton's" gift
had been spoilt by their meddling with it.' Constance was glad, though
she suspected that Lady Adela would never have found it out.

Then Ida consulted Sibyl Grover, who was working with a dressmaker, and
with whom she kept up a sort of patronisingly familiar acquaintance, as
to making something to rival it, and Sibyl was fertile in devices as to
doing so cheaply, but when she consulted her superior, she was told that
without the same expensive materials it would evidently be only an
imitation, and moreover, that the fashion was long gone out of date.
Which enabled Ida to bea