g!" said Mrs Louvaine. "I mean her to wear my
pearls, and that brown stuff--"

Wear Aunt Faith's pearls! Lettice's heart beat.

"Faith, my dear, I would not have the child use ornaments," said Lady
Louvaine quietly. "You wot, those of our way of thinking do commonly
discard them. Let us not give occasion for scandal. I would have
Lettice go neat and cleanly, and not under her station, but no more."

The palpitations of Lettice's heart sobered down. Of course she could
not expect to wear pearls and such worldly vanities. Grandmother was
always right.

"I can tell you, Mrs Gertrude and Mrs Anne shall not be in brown
kersey," said Mrs Louvaine, in her usual petulant tone. "And if Aubrey
don him not in satin and velvet, my name is not Faith."

"It shouldn't have been, my dear, for it isn't your nature," was her
sister's comment.

"We need not follow a multitude to do evil," quietly responded Lady
Louvaine, as she sat and knitted peacefully.

"Well, Madam, what comes that to--the brown kersey, trow? Edith saith
truth, lawn is cold this weather."

"I think, my dear, the green perpetuana were not too good, with clean
apron, ruff, and cuffs, and a silver lace: but I would have nought
more."

So Lettice made her appearance at the apple-cast in her Sunday gown, but
decked with no pearls, and her own brown hair turned soberly back under
her hood. She put no hat on over it, as she had only to slip into the
next house. In the hall Tom Rookwood met her, and bowing, requested the
honour of conducting her into the garden, where his sisters and cousin
were already busy with the day's duties.

On the short ladder which rested against one of the apple-trees stood
Dorothy, the tallest of the Rookwoods, clad in a long apron of white
lawn edged with lace, over a dress of rich dark blue silk, gathering
apples, and passing them to Anne at the foot of the ladder, by whom they
were delivered to Gertrude, who packed them in sundry crates ready for
the purpose. By Gertrude's side stood a dark, rosy, merry-looking child
of six, whom she introduced to Lettice as her cousin Bessy. Lettice,
who had expected Bessy to be much older, was disappointed, for she was
curious to know what kind of a creature a female Papist might be.

"Now, Tom, do your duty!" cried Dorothy, as Tom was about to retire. "I
am weary of gathering, and you having the longest legs and arms amongst
us, should take my place. Here come Mr Montague and Rebec