d at them, as she floated past, her airy white draperies looped
with scarlet ribbons; her dark hair turned back and fastened by a snood
of the same, an eagle's feather clasped in it by a large emerald, a
memory of her father's last siege--that of Lucknow.

"She is a very pretty creature," said the Colonel, under the sparkle of
her bright eyes.

"I never saw any one make the pursuits of young ladyhood have so much
spirit and meaning," added Rachel. "Here you see she has managed to make
herself sufficiently like other people, yet full of individual character
and meaning."

"That is the theory of dress, I suppose," said the Colonel.

"If one chooses to cultivate it."

"Did you ever see Lady Temple in full dress?"

"No; we were not out when we parted as girls."

"Then you have had a loss. I think it was at our last Melbourne ball,
that when she went to the nursery to wish the children good night, one
of them--Hubert, I believe--told her to wear that dress when she went to
heaven, and dear old Sir Stephen was so delighted that he went straight
upstairs to kiss the boy for it."

"Was that Lady Temple?" said Alick Keith, who having found Miss Grey
engaged many deep, joined them again, and at his words came back a
thrill of Rachel's old fear and doubt as to the possible future.

"Yes," said the Colonel; "I was recollecting the gracious vision she
used to be at all our chief's parties."

"Vision, you call her, who lived in the house with her? What do you
think she was to us--poor wretches--coming up from barracks where Mrs.
O'Shaughnessy was our cynosure? There was not one of us to whom she
was not Queen of the East, and more, with that innocent, soft, helpless
dignity of hers!"

"And Sir Stephen for the first of her vassals," said the Colonel.

"What a change it has been!" said Alick.

"Yes; but a change that has shown her to have been unspoilable. We were
just agreeing on the ball-room perfections of her and your sister in
their several lines."

"Very different lines," said Alick, smiling.

"I can't judge of Fanny's," said Rachel, "but your sister is almost
enough to make one believe there can be some soul in young lady life."

"I did not bring Bessie here to convert you," was the somewhat
perplexing answer.

"Nor has she," said Rachel, "except so far as I see that she can follow
ordinary girls' pursuits without being frivolous in them." Alick bowed
at the compliment.

"And she has been a sunbeam," added