nd it seems too old for a girl; the sort of thing for a dowager to wear
on state occasions. Now, let us see the frock."

A beautiful, fine albatross cloth in itself appropriate, but betrimmed
with pipings of satin and lace.

"Why it looks like a wedding gown. You'll have to save it for there will
be no occasion to wear it here. Not even graduation and the lawn fete,
for then we all wear simple white muslin. That is Mrs. Barrington's
law."

"Oh, dear, and it is so beautiful!" on a half cry. "You see, mamma
thought being a high-up school there would be parties and all that. Last
winter in New York I went to three and oh, you should have seen the
dresses! I had one of blue gauze over thin satin and it was just lovely,
and the dancing was simply great, and here you never go any where."

"We come here to improve our minds," said some one sententiously

"I'd like some real fun and gayety, and think that I must stay all alone
here."

"There will be five girls to keep you company."

"But there's no fun or parties or anything. Oh, let's cut the cake. I
shan't enjoy it when I am alone."

It was a real treat, and the nuts and sweets were a feast. They had not
much appetite for luncheon.

"But did you ever see anything so idiotic as that lovely frock for such
a girl and a place like this where you do not go to high-up parties,"
said one of the girls in a group, afterward. "And what it must have
cost! It really ought to be returned as very unsuitable."

"What can the mother be like, and isn't the father a politician or a
contractor?" with a laugh.

"No," returned Phillipa. "I asked father to find out about them. Mr.
Nevins is a reputable banker, a very good judge of loans and is rated
quite highly in London. Then he buys curios and pictures, so he must
have some taste. Think what that silly girl will have, enough to make
any three girls of us fancy ourselves heroines of the Arabian Nights;
but the mother can't have any sense."

"I think the modistes are largely to blame. No doubt the mother ordered
a handsome evening dress, and the woman made it handsome and expensive
and quite useless. You don't see Zay Crawford with any such things!"

"Zay is beauty unadorned."

"And Miss Nevins is ugliness intensified. I am really sorry for her,
though she has improved a very little. But when you think of the place
she might take in society--"

"And the journeys!"

"Still, I wouldn't want such a mother."

Phillipa went to he