sage-green dress was as little to
her taste as the impossible magenta. Under the two dresses were
ribbons of different shades and hues, some strong, coarse stockings,
some square-toed shoes, and finally, below everything else, an
evening-dress made of voile, and deep blue in tone.

"Some of the things will he very useful," said Miss Johnson. "I will
put them all back again now."

"But whom have they come from?" said Mrs. Ward. "I saw you take a note
and put it into your pocket, Maggie."

"Yes, these are a present from my stepfather," said Maggie.

"Miss Johnson, you will take them upstairs, won't you?" said Mrs.
Ward.--"It is kind of your stepfather to think of you, Maggie."

Maggie looked up and met Aneta's glance. Was Aneta thinking of the
Martyns of The Meadows? The color rushed all over Maggie's face. She
clenched her hands. "I hate the horrid, horrid things!" she said. "I
won't wear one of them."

"Oh, come, dear," said Mrs. Ward kindly; "your stepfather means very
well indeed by you. He has doubtless had very little to do with
dressing a lady before.--We can slightly alter those dresses, can we
not, Miss Johnson?"

Miss Johnson had now placed all the hideous garments back in the box.
She said with a smile, "The sage-green dress can be made quite useful;
but I rather despair of the magenta."

"Well," said Mrs. Ward, "it was meant kindly. Perhaps, Maggie, if you
gave me your stepfather's address I might write to him and tell him
the sort of things that I like my girls to wear."

Maggie turned crimson. That would indeed be the final straw. She
murmured something which Mrs. Ward did not choose to hear. To her
great relief, the hour for bed had arrived, and all the girls went to
their rooms.

Miss Johnson came down again after she had deposited the hideous
dresses in Maggie's wardrobe. "I quite pity poor little Maggie," she
said. "What frightful taste! There is really nothing in the whole of
that box that she can possibly wear."

"I must write to Mr. Martyn," said Mrs. Ward. "Didn't somebody tell me
that he was a country gentleman--a relation of the Martyns of The
Meadows? Such particularly nice people!"

"I know nothing about that," said Miss Johnson. "I only know that the
contents of the box are simply atrocious."

"Well," said Mrs. Ward, "we won't say anything to annoy Maggie
to-night; I could see that the poor dear child was greatly mortified.
I only regret that I had the box opened here; but you k