ece projected
with a mass of very rich carving. On the whole I was surprised. I had never
slept in so noble a room before.

The furniture, I must confess, was by no means on a par with the
architectural pretensions of the apartment. A French bed, a piece of carpet
about three yards square, a small table, two chairs, a toilet table--no
wardrobe--no chest of drawers. The furniture painted white, and of the
light and diminutive kind, was particularly ill adapted to the scale and
style of the apartment, one end only of which it occupied, and that but
sparsely, leaving the rest of the chamber in the nakedness of a stately
desolation. My cousin Milly ran away to report progress to 'the Governor,'
as she termed Uncle Silas.

'Well, Miss Maud, I never did expect to see the like o' that!' exclaimed
honest Mary Quince, 'Did you ever see such a young lady? She's no more like
one o' the family than I am. Law bless us! and what's she dressed like?
Well, well, well!' And Mary, with a rueful shake of her head, clicked her
tongue pathetically to the back of her teeth, while I could not forbear
laughing.

'And such a scrap o' furniture! Well, well, well!' and the same ticking of
the tongue followed.

But, in a few minutes, back came Cousin Milly, and, with a barbarous
sort of curiosity, assisted in unpacking my trunks, and stowing away the
treasures, on which she ventured a variety of admiring criticisms, in the
presses which, like cupboards, filled recesses in the walls, with great oak
doors, the keys of which were in them.

As I was making my hurried toilet, she entertained me now and then with
more strictly personal criticisms.

'Your hair's a shade darker than mine--it's none the better o' that
though--is it? Mine's said to be the right shade. I don't know--what do you
say?'

I conceded the point with a good grace.

'I wish my hands was as white though--you do lick me there; but it's all
gloves, and I never could abide 'em. I think I'll try though--they _are_
very white, sure.'

'I wonder which is the prettiest, you or me? _I_ don't know, _I_'m
sure--which do _you_ think?'

I laughed outright at this challenge, and she blushed a little, and for the
first time seemed for a moment a little shy.

'Well, you _are_ a half an inch longer than me, I think--don't you?'

I was fully an inch taller, so I had no difficulty in making the proposed
admission.

'Well, you do look handsome! doesn't she, Quinzy, lass? but your frock