look anything but a lady, and she too held up her
head in triumphant fashion, for was she not going shopping with five
bright golden sovereigns in her purse?

When Oxford Street was reached, the novices eagerly examined the windows
of a famous drapery establishment, in which the most thrilling bargains
were displayed to decoy the passers-by, and on the happy Irish principle
of placing the pleasantest duty first on the list, elbowed their way
upstairs to the millinery department. The room was blocked with a
throng of excited females all engaged in lifting hats from their pegs
and trying them on before the various mirrors. Sometimes two of the
number would set their affections on the same treasure, and then the one
who had been unsuccessful in obtaining possession would stand gloomily
by ready to pounce upon it the moment her adversary laid it down. Two
or three assistants stood at bay trying to answer a dozen questioners at
once, and experienced bargain-hunters were turning over the contents of
the drawers with one hand, and grasping four or five bonnets in the
other.

For a few moments the new-comers were too much bewildered to know what
to do first, but the spirit of plunder soon laid hold of them in their
turn, and they began to pounce upon the most fascinating of the spoils
and to try them on in breathless excitement.

Bridgie looked charming in all, her small head and cloud-like hair
making her an easy person to suit, but, alas! the prices still seemed
ruinous to her innocent mind, and she sadly turned her attention to the
more simple of the models. These were by no means so becoming as their
predecessors, and Pixie's criticisms were as usual strictly truthful as
she regarded them.

"Ye look a fright. Ye look old enough to be your own mother. It takes
all the colour out of your face. You look quite yellow!"

Bridgie tore the hat from her head, and seized upon a modest brown toque
which lay close at hand.

"Is that better, then? Is that dowdy enough to suit you?"

"It's hidjus!" cried Pixie with emphasis. "It's uglier than the other.
I wouldn't have it given to me as a present. You look an object from
the side!"

"But it's useful--it is useful!" sighed Bridgie dejectedly. Buying hats
was not so exciting as she had imagined if she were obliged to abjure
the pretty ones, and buy the useful in which she appeared to such
painful disadvantage. "And I expect it is cheap, Pixie. Very cheap! I
have,