ly be made to fit
you."

"I wish, Letitia, you would not speak to me like that," says Molly,
almost angrily, though there are tears in her eyes. "Do you suppose I
want to rob you? I have no doubt you would give me every gown you
possess, if I so willed it, and leave yourself nothing. Do remember I
am going to Herst more out of spite and curiosity than anything else,
and don't care in the least how I look. It is very unkind of you to say
such things."

"You are the kindest soul in the world, Letty," says John from the
doorway; "but keep your silk. Molly shall have one too." After which he
decamps.

"That is very good of John," says Molly. "The fact is, I haven't a
penny of my own,--I never have a week after I receive my allowance,--so
I must only do the best I can. If I don't like it, you know, I can come
home. It is a great thing to know, Letty, that _you_ will be glad
to have me, whether I am well dressed or very much the reverse."

"Exactly. And there is this one comfort also, that you look well in
anything. By the bye, you must have a maid. You shall take Sarah, and
we can get some one in until you come back to us. That"--with a
smile--"will prevent your leaving us too long to our own devices. You
will understand without telling what a loss the fair Sarah will be."

"You are determined I shall make my absence felt," says Molly, with a
half-smile. "Really, Letty, I don't like----"

"But I do," says Letty. "I don't choose you to be one whit behind any
one else at Herst. Without doubt they will beat you in the matter of
clothes; but what of that? I have known many titled people have a fine
disregard of apparel."

"So have I," returns Molly, gayly. "Indeed, were I a man, possessed
with a desire to be mistaken for a lord, I would go to the meanest 'old
clo' shop and purchase there the seediest garments and the most
dilapidated hat (with a tendency toward greenness), and a pair of boots
with a patch on the left side, and, having equipped myself in them,
saunter down the 'shady side of Pall Mall' with a sure and certain
conviction that I was 'quite the thing.' Should my ambitious longings
soar as high as a dukedom, I would add to the above costume a patch on
the right boot as well, and--questionable linen."

"Well," says Letitia, with a sigh, "I hope Marcia is a nice girl, and
that she will be kind to you."

"So do I,"--with a shrug,--"but from her writing I am almost sure she
isn't."

CHAPTER X.

"Wha