her charms. During the last few
months he had developed amazingly, and had put on all the airs of a
first-class dandy. He parted his hair in the middle, carried an
eye-glass and a cane, wore a long overcoat, and pants so tight that it
was a matter of speculation with his friends how he ever got into them,
or being in, how he ever got out! His last purchase in London had been a
pair of pointed shoes, which were just coming into vogue, as was the
species of the male gender called "dudes."

"A dudle I call 'em, and think 'em too shaller for, anything," was Mrs.
Rossiter-Browne's comment, and she looked a little askance at her son,
wondering how he would impress the Ridgevillians at home, and especially
what Miss Boughton would think of him. "I wouldn't make a 'tarnel fool
of myself if 'twas the fashion," she said to him when the pointed toes
appeared.

But Allen had his own ideas, and, encouraged by Daisy, who, though
wonderfully amused at his appearance, told him he was "_tout-a-fait
parisien_," he followed his own inclinations, and, arrayed in all his
finery, made himself the laughing-stock of the passengers. But he did
not care so long as Daisy smiled upon him, and allowed him to attend
her. He walked with her on deck and brought her chair for her, and her
shawl, and rug, and wrapped her feet carefully, and held the umbrella
over her head to screen her from the wind, and hovered over her
constantly, leaving his mother to stagger, or rather crawl up the stairs
as best she could, with her rug, and shawl, and waterproof, and saw her
umbrella turned inside out, and carried out to sea, without offering her
any assistance, even when, as she expressed it, she was "sick enough to
die."

Augusta did not need his attentions, for Lord Hardy devoted himself to
her, and nothing which Daisy could do availed to lure him from her side.
Once when Allen said to her that "Hardy seemed pretty hard hit with
Gus," her lip curled scornfully, but she dared not express her real
feelings and say how little the Irish lord cared for the girl herself.
She must not offend the Rossiter-Brownes, and she smiled sweetly upon
her rival, and called her "Gussie dear," and flattered Mrs. Browne, and
made eyes at Mr. Browne, and asked him to _bet_ for her in the
smoking-room, where he spent most of his time with a set of men who are
always there, smoking, drinking, joking, and betting upon the daily
speed of the ship, or any other trivial thing to pass aw