is most distinguished customers last; and
as the Misses Delavie were not high on the roll, Harriet and Aurelia had
been under his hands at nine A.M. From that time till three, when the
coach called for them, they had sat captive on low stools under a tent
of table-cloth over tall chair-backs to keep the dust out of the frosted
edifice constructed out of their rich dark hair, of the peculiar tint
then called mouse-colour. Betty had refused to submit to this durance.
"What sort of dinner would be on my father's table-cloth if I were to
sit under one all day?" said she in answer to Harriet's representation
of the fitness of things. "La, my dear, what matters it what an old
scarecrow like me puts on?"

Old maidenhood set in much earlier in those days than at present; the
sisters acquiesced, and Betty had run about as usual all the morning in
her mob-cap, and chintz gown tucked through her pocket-holes, and only
at the last submitted her head to the manipulations of Corporal Palmer,
who daily powdered his master's wig.

Strange and unnatural as was the whitening of the hair, it was effective
in enhancing the beauty of Aurelia's dark arched brows, the soft
brilliance of her large velvety brown eyes, and the exquisite carnation
and white of her colouring. Her features were delicately chiselled, and
her face had that peculiar fresh, innocent, soft, untouched bloom and
undisturbed repose which form the special charm and glory of the first
dawn of womanhood. Her little head was well poised on a slender neck,
just now curving a little to one side with the fatigue of the hours
during which it had sustained her headgear. This consisted of a
tiny flat hat, fastened on by long pins, and adorned by a cluster of
campanulas like those on her dress, with a similar blue butterfly on an
invisible wire above them, the dainty handiwork of Harriet.

The inquiry about conquests was a matter of course after a young lady's
first party, but Aurelia looked too childish for it, and Betty made
haste to reply.

"Aurelia was a very good girl. No one could have curtsied or bridled
more prettily when we paid our respects to my Lady Herries and Mrs.
Churchill, and the Dean highly commended her dancing."

"You danced? Fine doings! I thought you were merely invited to look on
at the game at bowls. Who had the best of the match?"

"The first game was won by Canon Boltby, the second by the Dean," said
Betty; "but when they would have played the conquero