ike that,' said Lesbia; 'you really look
like a young lady;' and Mary danced about on the lawn, feeling
sylph-like, and quite in love with her own elegance, when a sudden
uplifting of canine voices in the distance had sent her flying to see
what was the matter with the terrier pack.

In the kennel there was riot and confusion. Ahab was demolishing
Angelina, Absalom had Agamemnon in a deadly grip. Dog-whip in hand, Mary
rushed to the rescue, and laid about her, like the knights of old,
utterly forgetful of her frock. She soon succeeded in restoring order,
but the Madras muslin, the Breton lace had perished in the conflict. She
left the kennel panting, and in rags and tatters, some of the muslin and
lace hanging about her in strips a yard long, but the greater part
remaining in the possession of the terriers, who had mauled and munched
her finery to their hearts' content, while she was reading the Riot Act.

She went back to the house, bowed down by shame and confusion, and
marched straight to the dowager's morning-room.

'Look what the terriers have done to me, grandmother,' she said, with a
sob. 'It is all my own fault, of course. I ought not to have gone near
them in that stupid muslin. Please forgive me for being so foolish. I am
not fit to have pretty frocks.'

'I think, my dear, you can now have no doubt that the tailor gowns are
fittest for you,' answered Lady Maulevrier, with crushing placidity. 'We
have tried the experiment of dressing you like Lesbia, and you see it
does not answer. Tell Kibble to throw your new gown in the rag-bag, and
please let me hear no more about it.'

After this dismal failure Mary could not feel herself ill-used in
having to wear tailor gowns all the year round. She was allowed cotton
frocks for very warm weather, and she had pretty gowns for evening wear;
but her usual attire was cloth or linsey woolsey, made by the local
tailor. Sometimes Maulevrier ordered her a gown or a coat from his own
man in Conduit Street, and then she felt herself smart and fashionable.
And even the local tailor contrived to make her gowns prettily, having a
great appreciation of her straight willowy figure, and deeming it a
privilege to work for her, so that hitherto Mary had felt very well
content with her cloth and linsey. But now that John Hammond so
obviously admired Lesbia's delicate raiment, poor Mary began to think
her woollen gowns odious.

After breakfast Mary and Maulevrier went straight off to