ly amused by the amount of attention which his entrance had
attracted. Then his wife, a tall, fair woman, with a beautiful profile,
and an air of languid discontent, who floated past with rustling silken
skirts, leaving an impression of elegance and luxury, which made Mrs
Asplin sigh and Mellicent draw in her breath with a gasp of rapture.
Then followed Robert with his shaggy head, scowling more fiercely than
ever in his disgust at finding himself an object of attention, and last
of all a girlish figure in a grey dress, with a collar of soft, fluffy
chinchilla, and a velvet hat with drooping brim, beneath which could be
seen a glimpse of a face pink and white as the blossoms of spring, and a
mass of shining, golden hair. Peggy shut her lips with a snap, and the
iron entered into her soul. It was no use pretending any longer! This
was Rosalind, and she was fairer, sweeter, a hundred times more
beautiful than she had ever imagined!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

ROSALIND'S VISIT.

Robert did not make his appearance next morning, and his absence seemed
to give fresh ground for the expectation that Lady Darcy would drive
over with him in the afternoon and pay a call at the vicarage.

Mrs Asplin gathered what branches of russet leaves still remained in
the garden and placed them in bowls in the drawing-room, with a few
precious chrysanthemums peeping out here and there; laid out her very
best tea-cloth and d'oyleys, and sent the girls upstairs to change their
well-worn school dresses for something fresher and smarter.

"And you, Peggy dear--you will put on your pretty red, of course!" she
said, standing still, with a bundle of branches in her arms, and looking
with a kindly glance at the pale face, which had somehow lost its sunny
expression during the last two days.

Peggy hesitated and pursed up her lips.

"Why `of course,' Mrs Asplin? I never change my dress until evening.
Why need I do it to-day, just because some strangers may call whom I
have never seen before?"

It was the first time that the girl had objected to do what she was
told, and Mrs Asplin was both surprised and hurt by the tone in which
she spoke--a good deal puzzled too, for Peggy was by no means
indifferent to pretty frocks, and as a rule fond of inventing excuses to
wear her best clothes. Why, then, should she choose this afternoon of
all others to refuse so simple a request? Just for a moment she felt
tempted to make a sharp reply, and then ten