orn and soiled, my child. The two black silks will be good stand-bys
for years. If I were you, I 'd have a couple of neat, pretty prints for
home-wear, and then I don't see why you are n't fixed well enough for
our short season."

"Can't I do anything with this barege? It 's one of my favorite dresses,
and I hate to give it up."

"You wore that thoroughly out, and it 's only fit for the rag-bag. Yes,
it was very pretty and becoming, I remember, but its day is over."

Fanny let the dress lie in her lap a minute as she absently picked at
the fringe, smiling to herself over the happy time when she wore it last
and Sydney said she only needed cowslips in her lap to look like spring.
Presently she folded it up and put it away with a sigh, but it never
went into the rag-bag, and my sentimental readers can understand what
saved it.

"The ball dresses had better be put nicely away till next year," began
Polly, coming to a rainbow colored heap.

"My day is over, I shall never use them again. Do what you like with
them," said Fan calmly.

"Did you ever sell your cast-off finery, as many ladies do?" asked
Polly.

"Never; I don't like the fashion. I give it away, or let Maud have it
for tableaux."

"I wonder if you would mind my telling you something Belle proposed?"

"If it 's an offer to buy my clothes, I should mind," answered Fanny,
sharply.

"Then I won't," and Polly retired behind a cloud of arsenic-green gauze,
which made her look as if she had the cholera.

"If she wanted to buy that horrid new 'gooseberry-colored gown,' as
Tom calls it, I 'd let her have it cheap," put in Maud, who was of a
practical turn.

"Does she want it, Polly?" asked Fan, whose curiosity got the better of
her pride.

"Well, she merely asked me if I thought you 'd be mortally offended,
if she offered to take it off your hands, as you 'd never worn it. You
don't like it, and in another season it will be all out of fashion,"
said Polly from her verdant retreat.

"What did you say?"

"I saw she meant it kindly, so I said I 'd ask. Now between ourselves,
Fan, the price of that dress would give you all you 'll want for your
spring fixings, that 's one consideration; then here 's another, which
may have some weight with you," added Polly slyly. "Trix told Belle she
was going to ask you for the dress, as you would n't care to wear it
now. That made Belle fire up, and say it was a mean thing to do without
offering some return for a costly