ther female mysteries, going on.

As for Lillie, she lay in a loose _neglige_ on the bed, ready every
five minutes to be called up to have something measured, or tried on,
or fitted; and to be consulted whether there should be fifteen or
sixteen tucks and then an insertion, or sixteen tucks and a series of
puffs. Her labors wore upon her; and it was smilingly observed by Miss
Clippins across to Miss Nippins, that Miss Lillie was beginning to
show her "engagement bones." In the midst of these preoccupations, a
letter was handed to her by the giggling chambermaid. It was a thick
letter, directed in a bold honest hand. Miss Lillie took it with a
languid little yawn, finished the last sentences in a chapter of the
novel she was reading, and then leisurely broke the seal and glanced
it over. It was the one that the enraptured John had spent his morning
in writing.

"Miss Ellis, now, if you'll try on this jacket--oh! I beg your
pardon," said Miss Clippins, observing the letter, "we can wait, _of
course_;" and then all three laughed as if something very pleasant was
in their minds.

"No," said Lillie, giving the letter a toss; "it'll _keep_;" and
she stood up to have a jaunty little blue jacket, with its pluffy
bordering of swan's down, fitted upon her.

"It's too bad, now, to take you from your letter," said Miss Clippins,
with a sly nod.

"I'm sure you take it philosophically," said Miss Nippins, with a
giggle.

"Why shouldn't I?" said the divine Lillie. "I get one every day; and
it's all the old story. I've heard it ever since I was born."

"Well, now, to be sure you have. Let's see," said Miss Clippins, "this
is the seventy-fourth or seventy-fifth offer, was it?"

"Oh, you must ask mamma! she keeps the lists: I'm sure I don't trouble
my head," said the little beauty; and she looked so natty and jaunty
when she said it, just arching her queenly white neck, and making
soft, downy dimples in her cheeks as she gave her fresh little
childlike laugh; turning round and round before the looking-glass, and
issuing her orders for the fitting of the jacket with a precision and
real interest which showed that there _were_ things in the world which
didn't become old stories, even if one had been used to them ever
since one was born.

Lillie never was caught napping when the point in question was the fit
of her clothes.

When released from the little blue jacket, there was a rose-colored
morning-dress to be tried on, and a