d been looking steadily at her
for some minutes, said, abruptly:

"Zillah, I'm sure Guy will not know you when he comes back."

She looked up laughingly. "Why, father? I think every lineament on my
face must be stereotyped on his memory."

"That is precisely the reason why I say that he will not know you. I
could not have imagined that three years could have so thoroughly
altered any one."

"It's only fine feathers," said Zillah, shaking her head. "You must
allow that Mathilde is incomparable. I often feel that were she to
have the least idea of the appearance which I presented, when I first
came here, there would be nothing left for me but suicide. I could
not survive her contempt. I was always fond of finery. I have Indian
blood enough for that; but when I remember my combinations of colors,
it really makes me shudder; and my hair was always streaming over my
shoulders in a manner more _neglige_ than becoming."

"I do Mathilde full justice," returned Lord Chetwynde. "Your toilette
and coiffure are now irreproachable; but even her power has its
limits, and she could scarcely have turned the sallow, awkward girl
into a lovely and graceful woman."

Zillah, who was unused to flattery, blushed very red at this tribute
to her charms, and answered, quickly:

"Whatever change there may be is entirely due to Monmouthshire.
Devonshire never agreed with me. I should have been ill and delicate
to this day if I had remained there; and as to sallowness, I must
plead guilty to that. I remember a lemon-colored silk I had, in which
it was impossible to tell where the dress ended and my neck began.
But, after all, father, you are a very prejudiced judge. Except that
I am healthy now, and well dressed, I think I am very much the same
personally as I was three years ago. In character, however, I feel
that I have altered."

"No," he replied; "I have been looking at you for the last few
minutes with perfectly unprejudiced eyes, trying to see you as a
stranger would, and as Guy will when he returns. And now," he added,
laughingly, "you shall be punished for your audacity in doubting my
powers of discrimination, by having a full inventory given you. We
will begin with the figure--about the middle height, perhaps a little
under it, slight and graceful; small and beautifully proportioned
head; well set on the shoulders; complexion no longer sallow or
lemon-colored, but clear, bright, transparent olive; hair, black as
night, and glos