one
of Dolly's pupils, and cherished a secret but enthusiastic admiration
for her. And, upon the whole, Dolly was fond of the girl. She was
good-natured and unsophisticated, and bore the consciousness of her
physical and mental imperfections with a humility which was almost
touching to her friend sometimes. Catching Dolly's eye on this occasion,
she glanced at her imploringly, and then, catching the eye of her
mother, blushed to the tips of her ears, and relapsed into secret
anguish of mind.

But Dolly, recognizing her misery, smiled reassuringly, and made her
way across the room to her, insinuating herself through the theological
phalanx.

"I am so glad you are here at last," said the girl. "I was so afraid
you would n't come. And oh, how nice you look, and how beautifully you
manage your train! I could never do it in the world. I should be sure
to tumble over it. But nothing ever seems to trouble you at all. You
haven't any idea how lovely you were when you went across the room to
mamma.. Everybody looked at you, and I don't wonder at it."

"They would have looked at anybody," answered Dolly, laughing. "They had
nothing else to do."

"That is quite true, poor things," sighed Euphemia, sympathetically.
"You don't know the worst yet, either. You don't know how stupid they
are and can be, Dolly. That old gentleman near the screen has not spoken
one word yet, and he keeps sighing and wiping the top of his bald head
with his pocket-handkerchief until I can't keep my eyes off him, and I
am afraid he has noticed me. I don't mean any harm, I'm sure, but I have
got nothing to do myself, and I can't help it. But what I was going to
say was, that people looked at you as they did not look at others who
came in. You seem different some way. And I'm sure that Mr. Gowan of
mamma's has been staring at you until it is positively rude of him."

Dolly's slowly moving fan became stationary for a moment.

"Mr. Gowan," she said. "Who is Mr. Gowan?"

"One of mamma's people," answered Euphemia, "though I'm sure I can't
quite understand how he can be one of them. He looks so different from
the rest. He is very rich, you know, and very aristocratic, and has
travelled a great deal He has been all over the world, they say. There
he is at that side-table."

Dolly's eyes, travelling round the assemblage with complacent
indifference, rested at last on the side-table where the subject of
Euphemia's remarks sat.

He really was an eligible