me deplorable fate.

At last, one morning, as soon as Laura got up, Lady Harriet gravely led
her towards a large table on which all the ill-used frocks had been laid
out in a row; and a most dismal sight they were! Such a collection of
stains and fractures was probably never seen before! A beggar would
scarcely have thanked her for her blue merino; and the green silk frock
looked like the tattered cover of a worn-out umbrella.

"Laura," said Lady Harriet, "in Switzerland a lady's wardrobe descends
to many generations; but nobody will envy your successor! One might
fancy that a wild beast had torn you to pieces every day! I wonder what
an old clothesman would give for your whole baggage! It is only fit for
being used as rags in a paper manufactory!"

Poor Laura's face became perfectly pink when she saw the destruction
that a very short time had occasioned: and she looked from one tattered
garment to another, in melancholy silence, thinking how lately they had
all been fresh and beautiful; but now not a vestige of their former
splendour remained. At last her grandmama broke the awful silence, by
saying,

"My dear girl! I have warned you very often lately that we are not at
home, where your frocks could be washed and mended as soon as they were
spoiled; but without considering this you have, every day, destroyed
several, so now the maid finds, on examining your drawers, that there is
only one clean frock remaining!"

Laura looked gravely at the last clean frock, and wondered much what her
grandmama would say next.

"I do not wish to make a prisoner of you at home during this very fine
weather, yet in five minutes after leaving the house, you will, of
course, become unfit to be seen, which I should very much regret, as a
number of fine people are coming to dinner, whom you would like to see.
The great General Courteney, and all his Aide-de-Camps, intend to be
here on their way from a review, besides many officers and ladies who
know your papa very well, and wish to see my little grand-daughter; but
I would not on any account allow you to appear before them, looking like
a perfect tatterdemalion, as you too often do. They would suppose you
had been drawn backwards through a hedge! Now my plan is, that you shall
wear this old pink gingham for romping all morning in the garden, and
dress in your last clean frock for dinner; but remember to keep out of
sight till then. Remain within the garden walls, as none of the compan