*

At this period Lady Walderhurst went to London again to shop, and spent
two entire happy days in buying beautiful things of various kinds, which
were all to be sent to Mrs. Osborn at The Kennel Farm, Palstrey. She had
never enjoyed herself so much in her life as she did during those two
days when she sat for hours at one counter after another looking at
exquisite linen and flannel and lace. The days she had spent with Lady
Maria in purchasing her trousseau had not compared with these two. She
looked actually lovely as she almost fondled the fine fabrics, smiling
with warm softness at the pretty things shown her. She spent, in fact,
good deal of money, and luxuriated in so doing as she tfould never have
luxuriated in spending it in finery for herself. Nothing indeed seemed
too fairy-like in its fineness, no quantity of lace seemed in excess.
Her heart positively trembled in her breast sometimes, and she found
strange tears rising in her eyes.

"They are so sweet," she said plaintively to the silence of her own
bedroom as she looked some of her purchases over. "I don't know why they
give me such a feeling. They look so little and--helpless, and as if
they were made to hold in one's arms. It's absurd of me, I daresay."

The morning the boxes arrived at The Kennel Farm, Emily came too. She
was in the big carriage, and carried with her some special final
purchases she wanted to bring herself. She came because she could not
have kept away. She wanted to see the things again, to be with Hester
when she unpacked them, to help her, to look them all over, to touch
them and hold them in her hands.

She found Hester in the large, low-ceilinged room in which she slept.
The big four-post bed was already snowed over with a heaped-up drift of
whiteness, and open boxes were scattered about. There was an odd
expression in the girl's eyes, and she had a red spot on either cheek.

"I did not expect anything like this," she said. "I thought I should
have to make some plain, little things myself, suited to its station,"
with a wry smile. "They would have been very ugly. I don't know how to
sew in the least. You forget that you were not buying things for a
prince or a princess, but for a little beggar."

"Oh, don't!" cried Emily, taking both her hands. "Let us be _happy_! It
was so _nice_ to buy them. I never liked anything so much in my life."

She went and stood by the bedside, taking up the things one by one,
touching up fri