ety net closing round him.

"Of course I do. I want to see your house, and to feel what it would
be like to live there."

"I don't believe you have a proper frock to go in. A coat and skirt
won't do."

"What nonsense! I've an evening dress, of a sort; and they don't
invite my frock, but me!"

"We'll go, then, as you've set your heart upon it; but I feel as if it
were the letting out of water."

Certainly Paul had no reason to complain of Sally's appearance when she
came down ready dressed for her dinner on the following evening. In
her simple white dress, cut away at the throat, with a soft muslin
fichu tied in front with long ends falling to the bottom other skirt,
she looked, as old Macdonald afterwards remarked to his wife, "as a
lady should:" fair, and fresh, and young. Her dusky hair waved
prettily upon her forehead, and half concealed her ears; the face it
framed was not, strictly speaking, pretty, but it was bright and
animated, and the dark eyes and eyebrows were handsome.

"I've won one person's approval at any rate," said Sally, merrily, as
they started on their way. "I went in to bid Macdonald good night, and
Mrs. Macdonald said, as she helped me on with my cape, that 'my John'
likes ladies to wear white dresses and have pale faces. He could not
abide colour, except in flowers."

"Then you are fulfilling your mission, Sally, and winning your way into
Macdonald's good graces. We shan't be turned out."

"It's my first dinner-party, Paul. Do you realise the importance of
the occasion? I've had no coming-out like other girls."

"That's why you are so much jollier than most of them," said Paul,
betrayed into a compliment.

From the moment they entered the drive-gate, and began the ascent to
the house, Sally looked about her with eager interest, breaking into
exclamations of delight as each step revealed some fresh beauty to her
eyes.

"It's a dangerous experiment to have brought you. You will be horribly
discontented with Macdonald's, after this."

"I shan't. But if this place were mine, I should live here, and make
it a joy to everybody about me. I would not want to keep it to
myself," Sally said--

But the front door was reached, and a footman was at hand to help her
off with her cloak; and in another instant the door of the long
drawing-room was thrown wide, and Sally, with the un-self-consciousness
of simplicity, heard herself announced, and found her hand in Mrs.
Webster's, who