fell upon a handsome black, enlivened by beautiful blue
flowers in the flounces; but her tyrant scouted it as a 'dingy dowager,'
and overruled her into choosing a delicate lavender, insisting that if it
were less durable, so much the better for her friends, and domineering
over the black lace accompaniments with a solemn tenderness that made her
warn him in a whisper that people were taking her for his ancient bride,
thus making him some degrees more drolly attentive; settling her
head-gear with the lady of the shop, without reference to her. After
all, it was very charming to be so affectionately made a fool of, and it
was better for her children as well as due to the house of Charlecote
that she should not be a dowdy country cousin.

Meantime, Phoebe stood by amused, admiring, assisting, but not at all
bewildered. Miss Fennimore had impressed the maxim; 'Always know what
you mean to do, and do it.' She had never chosen a dress before, but
that did not hinder her from having a mind and knowing it; she had a
reply for each silk that Owen suggested, and the moment her turn came,
she desired to see a green glace. In vain he exclaimed, and drew his
favourites in front of her, in vain appealed to Miss Charlecote and the
shopman; she laughed him off, took but a moment to reject each proffered
green which did not please her, and in as brief a space had recognized
the true delicate pale tint of ocean. It was one that few complexions
could have borne, but their connoisseur, with one glance from it to her
fresh cheek, owned her right, though much depended on the garniture, and
he again brought forward his beloved lilac, insinuating that he should
regard her selection of it as a personal attention. No; she laughed, and
said she had made up her mind and would not change; and while he was
presiding over Honora's black lace, she was beforehand with him, and her
bill was being made out for her white muslin worked mantle, white bonnet
with a tuft of lady grass, white evening dress, and wreath of lilies of
the valley.

'Green and white, forsaken quite,' was the best revenge that occurred to
him, and Miss Charlecote declared herself ashamed that the old lady's
dress had caused so much more fuss than the young lady's.

It was of course too late for the Exhibition, so they applied themselves
to further shopping, until Owen had come to the farthest point whence he
could conveniently walk back to dine with his cousins, and go with th