r a long, long time, till I am quite a middle-aged woman. I don't see
why I should be plagued about it when Annie here, who is two years older
than I am, and ever so much prettier, as everybody knows, has escaped
such persecution."

"My dear," said Annie demurely, "it is because you have the opportunity
of presenting me with a pair of green garters. If it should occur again,
and you choose to avail yourself of it, I mean to accept the garters
with the best grace in the world. Isn't that good of me when you have
been coolly telling me that I have been overlooked as the eldest, and
the belle of the family--flattering my conceit with one breath and
taking it down with another? But it is not a case of Leah and Rachel.
We are not in the East, and in the West the elder sister does not
necessarily take precedence in marriage. You are quite welcome to marry
first, Dora; you are all welcome to marry before me, girls," with a
sweeping curtsey to her audience all round. "I am perfectly resigned to
your leaving your poor worthy elder sister to end her days as a solitary
spinster, a meek and useful maiden-aunt."

The Millars were the daughters of Dr. Millar of Redcross, an
old-fashioned country town in the Midlands. They were happy in having a
good father and mother still spared to them. The girls were what is
called "a fine family," in a stronger sense than that in which Jane
Austen has used the term. Their ages ranged from twenty-two to midway
between sixteen and seventeen. They were all good-looking girls, with a
family likeness. Annie, the eldest, was very pretty, with delicate,
regular features, a soft warm brunette colour, dark eyes, and a small
brown head and graceful throat, like the head and throat of a greyhound.

Dora, the first wooed, was, at a hasty glance, a mere shadow of Annie.
She was pale, though it was a healthy paleness. Her hair was lighter in
tint, her eyes, too, were considerably lighter--granted that they were
clear as crystal. It was difficult to think of Dora as preferred before
Annie, if one did not take into account that there are people who will
turn away from June roses to gather a cluster of honeysuckle, or pick
a sweet pea--people to whom there is an ineffable charm in simple
maidenliness and sweetness. Dora's modest unhesitating acceptance of the
second part in the family and social circle, and her perfect content to
play it, would be a crowning attraction in such people's eyes. So would
her gentle