that Mary Ellen is properly dressed for the
ceremony?"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly."

Mrs. Gregg looked at Mary Ellen again as she spoke, looked at her very
carefully and then smiled.

Mary Ellen was also smiling. The proper dressing of Mary Ellen
was plainly a very difficult task. Mrs. Gregg's smile was at first
contemptuous. Mary Ellen's, on the other hand, was purely good-natured,
and therefore very attractive, Mrs. Gregg began to relent.

"Won't you come in?" she said to Dr. O'Grady.

"Certainly," he replied. "Mary Ellen, you sit down on that chair in the
hall and wait till we call you."

"I don't know can I wait," said Mary Ellen.

"If Moriarty's lurking about for you," said Dr. O'Grady, "let him wait.
It'll do him good. It's a great mistake for you to make yourself too
cheap. No girl ought to. Moriarty will think a great deal more of you in
the end if you keep him waiting every day for half an hour or so."

"It's not him I'm thinking of," said Mary Ellen, "but it's Mr. Doyle."

Dr. O'Grady took no notice of this remark. He did not believe that Mary
Ellen was very much afraid of Mr. Doyle. He followed Mrs. Gregg into the
dining-room. Mary Ellen sat down.

"She really is rather a pretty girl," said Mrs. Gregg.

"Then you'll undertake the job," said Dr. O'Grady. "You won't have
to pay for anything, you know. We'll charge whatever you like to buy
against the statue fund."

Mrs. Gregg did not appear to be listening. She was thinking deeply.

"I have an old silk slip," she said, "which might be made down."

"Capital! A silk slip will be the very thing."

Dr. O'Grady had no idea what a silk slip might be. But his enthusiastic
welcome of the suggestion passed unnoticed. Mrs. Gregg was still
thinking.

"I could get a white muslin," she said, "with an embroidered yoke and a
wide collar. It wouldn't cost very much."

"We'd like the thing done well," said Dr. O'Grady, "not extravagantly,
of course, but well."

"Shell look quite sweet," said Mrs. Gregg; "but what will Mrs. Ford
say?"

"She'll have to be kept in a good temper."

"Kept!" said Mrs. Gregg, giggling delightedly.

She was very much afraid of Mrs. Ford, but she found a fearful joy in
entering into a conspiracy against her with Dr. O'Grady for ally.

"Kept!" she repeated, "but she never is."

"My idea," said Dr. O'Grady, "is that you should dress Mary Ellen
yourself, according to your own ideas, and at the same time consult with
Mrs. Ford,