ister.

But it is not to be supposed that because Lesbia was beautiful, Mary was
plain. This is very far from the truth. Mary had splendid hazel eyes,
with a dancing light in them when she smiled, ruddy auburn hair, white
teeth, a deeply-dimpled chin, and a vivacity and archness of expression,
which served only in her present state of tutelage for the subjugation
of old women and shepherd boys. Mary had been taught to believe that her
chances of future promotion were of the smallest; that nobody would ever
talk of her, or think of her by-and-by when she in her turn would make
her appearance in London society, and that it would be a very happy
thing for her if she were so fortunate as to attract the attention of a
fashionable physician, a Canon of Westminster or St. Paul's, or a
barrister in good practice.

Mary turned up her pert little nose at this humdrum lot.

'I would much rather spend all my life among these dear hills than marry
a nobody in London,' she said, fearless of that grand old lady at whose
frown so many people shivered. 'If you don't think people will like me
and admire me--a little--you had better save yourself the trouble of
taking me to London. I don't want to play second fiddle to my sister.'

'You are a very impertinent person, and deserve to be taken at your
word,' replied my lady, scowling at her; 'but I have no doubt before you
are twenty you will tell another story.'

'Oh!' said Mary, now just turned seventeen, 'then I am not to come out
till I am twenty.'

'That will be soon enough,' answered the Countess. 'It will take you as
long to get rid of those odious freckles. And no doubt by that time
Lesbia will have made a brilliant marriage.'

And now on this rainy July morning these two girls, neither of whom had
any serious employment for her life, or any serious purpose in living,
wasted the hours, each in her own fashion.

Lesbia reclined upon a cushioned seat in the deep embrasure of a Tudor
window, her _pose_ perfection--it was one of many such attitudes which
Mademoiselle had taught her, and which by assiduous training had become
a second nature. Poor Mademoiselle, having finished her mission and
taught Lesbia all she could teach, had now departed to a new and far
less luxurious situation in a finishing school at Passy; but Fraeulein
Mueller was still retained, as watch-dog and duenna.

Lesbia's pale blue morning gown harmonised exquisitely with a complexion
of lilies and roses, vio