in dress, the beautiful Miss
Dash.--"Not that I can see much beauty in her myself. She's not a patch
on you, when you're in form!" Cornelia felt a girl's natural pleasure
in the compliment, in the truth of which she complacently agreed. She
did not envy Miss Dash her looks, but she did emphatically envy her her
friends, particularly her male friends, who clustered around her
carriage, eager for a word. One felt decidedly out of it, driving
through a crowd of strangers, not one of whom turned a welcoming smile
in your direction, nor cared whether you came or went. At home,
Cornelia was accustomed to be in the midst of all that was going on, a
central figure, round which all the rest revolved. She did not at all
appreciate being relegated to the position of regarding the fray from
the vantage of a hired vehicle!

Cornelia craned her head to right and to left, scanning the passing
crowd for a familiar face. It seemed impossible that among hundreds of
people there should not be someone whom she recognised, and her faith
was justified, for just at the bend near the Marble Arch, she had a
passing glimpse of Guest's tall figure, standing talking to two ladies,
one middle-aged, the other young, and graceful, and smiling. They were
quietly, even simply, attired, but their whole air and carriage breathed
that indefinable something which she had just struggled to define:
something diametrically different from the ostentatious display of the
woman by her side. Theoretically, Cornelia was thankful to escape
observation; in reality she felt an absurd pang of loneliness and
disappointment, as the carriage bore her out of sight.

The evening was spent at a theatre, and by eleven o'clock next morning
both ladies had started forth on one of the shopping expeditions, which
seemed to constitute Mrs Moffatt's chief pleasure in life. They drove
first of all to the jeweller's, where Cornelia was shown the emerald
necklace, a wonderful collection of stones, in an antique setting, with
which she herself promptly fell in love. The price was excessive, even
for her own deep purse, and she concluded that Mr Moffatt's means must
be even larger than she had imagined, since his wife seriously
contemplated such a purchase. There was a good deal of bargaining,
half-serious, half-joking, between Mrs Moffatt and the very imposing-
looking personage behind the counter, but fortified by the advent of
another possible purchaser, the latter ste