immings's isn't a stone's-throw from here; and
you may as well settle a thing when you are about it."

"And I will take the silk, Miss Milner, if you will kindly let me have
a nice piece of brown paper."

"Indeed and you will do no such thing, Miss Challoner; and there is
Joseph going down with the papers to Mr. Drummond's, and will leave it
at the Friary as he passes."

"Oh, thank you," observed Phillis, gratefully. "Then I will pencil a
word to my sister, to let her know why I am detained." And she
scrawled a line to Nan:

"Trimmings, not Squails: here beginneth the first chapter. Expect me
when you see me, and do nothing until I come."

There was no side-door at Trimmings's, and Mrs. Trimmings was at the
desk, jotting down legs of mutton, and entries of gravy-beef and suet,
with a rapidity that would have tried the brain of any other woman
than a butcher's wife.

When Phillis approached, she looked up at her suavely, expecting
custom.

"Just half a moment, ma'am," she said, civilly. "Yes, Joe, wing-rib
and half of suet to Mrs. Penfold, and a loin of lamb and sweet-bread
for No. 12, Albert Terrace. Now, ma'am, what can I do for you?"

"I have only come about your dress, Mrs. Trimmings," returned Phillis,
in a very small voice; and then she tried not to laugh, as Mrs.
Trimmings regarded her with a broad stare of astonishment, which took
her in comprehensively, hat, dress, and neat dogskin gloves.

"You might have taken up my pen and knocked me down with it," was Mrs.
Trimmings's graphic description of her feelings afterwards, as she
carved a remarkably fine loin of veal, with a knuckle of ham and some
kidney-beans to go with it. "There was the colonel standing by the
desk, Andrew; and he turned right round and looked at us both. 'I've
come about your dress, Mrs. Trimmings,' she said, as pertlike as
possible. Law, I thought I should have dropped, I was that taken
aback."

Phillis's feelings were none of the pleasantest when Colonel Middleton
turned round and looked at her. There was an expression almost of
sorrow in the old man's eyes, as he so regarded her, which made her
feel hot and uncomfortable. It was a relief when Mrs. Trimmings roused
from her stupefaction and bustled out of the desk.

"This way, miss," she said, with a jerk of her comely head. But her
tone changed a little, and became at once sharp and familiar. "I hope
you understand your business, for I never could abide waste; and the
way Miss