always a woman of
fashion, sailed along like a light sloop on a mild afternoon, her
curves of time and crinoline not unlike sails filled by a gentle
breeze; affectedly unconscious but quite aware that many a card was
laid down as she rustled by, and that all the winter world of Nevis
already knew that the fashionable Mrs. Nunn, sister of one of the
ladies of the bed-chamber, had arrived by the afternoon packet, and
eagerly anticipated the intimate bits of court gossip with which she
might condescend to regale them.

But Miss Percy knew naught of courts and little of drawing-rooms,
and although pride held up her chin, and she tried to reflect that
the moors had given her a finer, freer carriage than any of these
languishing girls could boast, she followed her imposing chaperon with
a furious beating of the heart; a condition which gave her, as the
elegant Miss Bargarny remarked to the elegant Mr. Abergenny, the
colour of a milkmaid. But although the blood of the girl bred in a
remote corner of England was warm and rich in her veins, and her skin
was tanned, it would take more than colour to coarsen her features,
and perhaps it was the straight nose of the Percys' which enabled her
to step calmly along in the wake of her aunt whilst wishing that she
might fly through one of the windows. (A good nose is the backbone
of moral fortitude.) Although there were arches leading into
drawing-rooms, and morning-rooms, there was but one exit to the
staircase, and in spite of the grandeur and the masses of palms and
tropic flowers everywhere, the hotel had ceased to look like a fairy
palace to the girl who had only paused long enough in her journey from
her old manor to furnish her wardrobe in the darkest and dirtiest of
winter cities. She had felt like the enchanted princess in the fairy
tale for a few hours, but now she longed for nothing but her balcony
up-stairs.

She had begun to wonder if she might beg her aunt to accelerate her
lady-like gait, when, to her horror, Mrs. Nunn was signalled by an
acquaintance, as yet unseen, and promptly sat down at her table;
announcing that she tarried but a moment. There was no other vacant
chair; all near by were occupied by dames as imposing as Mrs. Nunn or
by elderly gentlemen who bent the more attentively over their cards.
There was nothing for Anne to do but draw herself up to her full
height, and look quite indifferent to being the only woman in the room
to stand and invite the critic