y. They were
laughing at her, the rude, unkind, unfeeling creatures.

"What could there be to laugh at?" asked Hilary of herself. Her dress
had been made by a fashionable modiste; Miss Carr's own maid had
arranged her hair. "I may not be pretty, but there's nothing ludicrous
about me that I know of," said the poor child to herself, with catching
breath. In spite of her seventeen years, her new dress, and all her
ecstatic anticipations, a more lonely, uncomfortable, and tearfully-
inclined young woman it would be difficult to find. She looked round in
despair, espied a seat in a retired corner, and was making for it as
quickly as might be, when she came face to face with a mirror, and in it
saw a reflection which made the colour rush to her cheeks in a hot,
crimson tide. A girlish figure, with a dark head set gracefully upon a
slender neck, a dainty dress, all cloudy chiffon, satiny ribbons, and
nodding snowdrops, and beneath--oh, good gracious!--beneath the soft
frilled edgings, a pair of enormous, shapeless, scarlet worsted bed
slippers! It would be difficult to say which was the more scarlet at
that moment--the slippers themselves or Hilary's cheeks. She shuffled
forward and stood in the corner, paralysed with horror. There had been
such a crowd in the cloak-room, and she had been so anxious to get away,
that she had forgotten all about the wretched slippers. So that was why
the ladies were laughing! Oh, to think how she must have looked--
standing by herself in the doorway, with those awful, awful scarlet feet
shown up against the white skirts!

"Sit down and slip them off, and hide them in the corner. No one will
see you!" said a sympathetic voice in her ear, and Hilary turned sharply
to find that one end of the seat was already occupied by a gentleman,
who was regarding her with a very kindly smile of understanding. His
face was thin, and there were signs of suffering in the strained
expression of the eyes, so that Hilary, looking at him, found it
impossible to take his advice otherwise than in a friendly spirit.

"Th-ank you," she stammered, and pulling off the offending slippers, hid
them swiftly behind the folds of the curtains, and seated herself on the
sofa by his side.

"That's better!" cried the stranger, looking down with approving eyes at
the little satin shoes which were now revealed. "Forgot to take them
off, didn't you? Very natural. I did the same with snow-shoes once,
and was in th