That _is_ a cruel way of
testifying. I can't find a scrap of that shade, though I've nearly broke
my heart in the tackle shops. Here's my last fragment, and this butcher
will be a wreck for want of it.'

'Let me see,' quoth the gentleman, bending over with an air of intimacy.

'You may see,' returned Lucilla, 'but that will do no good. Owen got
this at a little shop at Elverslope, and we can only conclude that the
father of orange pigs is dead, for we've tried every maker, and can't hit
off the tint.'

'I've seen it in a shop in the Strand,' he said, with an air of
depreciation, such as set both ladies off with an ardour inexplicable to
mere spectators, both vehemently defending the peculiarity of their
favourite hue, and little personalities passing, exceedingly diverting
apparently to both parties, but which vexed Honora and dismayed Phoebe by
the coolness of the gentleman, and the ease with which he was treated by
the ladies.

Luncheon was announced in the midst, and in the dining-room they found
Miss Charteris, a dark, aquiline beauty, of highly-coloured complexion,
such as permitted the glowing hues of dress and ornament in which she
delighted, and large languid dark eyes of Oriental appearance.

In the scarlet and gold net confining her sable locks, her ponderous
earrings, her massive chains and bracelets, and gorgeous silk, she was a
splendid ornament at the head of the table; but she looked sleepily out
from under her black-fringed eyelids, turned over the carving as a matter
of course to Owen, and evidently regarded the two young ladies as bound
to take all trouble off her hands in talking, arranging, or settling what
she should do with herself or her carriage.

'Lolly shall take you there,' or 'Lolly shall call for that,' passed
between the cousins without the smallest reference to Lolly herself
(otherwise Eloisa), who looked serenely indifferent through all the plans
proposed for her, only once exerting her will sufficiently to say, 'Very
well, Rashe, dear, you'll tell the coachman--only don't forget that I
must go to Storr and Mortimer's.'

Honora expressed a hope that Lucilla would come with her party to the
Exhibition, and was not pleased that Mr. Calthorp exclaimed that there
was another plan.

'No, no, Mr. Calthorp, I never said any such thing!'

'Miss Charteris, is not that a little too strong?'

'You told me of the Dorking,' cried Lucilla, 'and you said you would not
miss the sight for