o dress for dinner. I couldn't bear to wear one
of the grand Ellaline dresses, so I put on the old black. I did look a
frump in it, in such a place as Graylees Castle, where everything ought
to be beautiful and rich, but I did my hair as nicely as I could, and
from the top of my head to my shoulders I wasn't so bad.

I went downstairs at eight o'clock, and Mrs. Senter was already in the
great hall, standing in front of the splendid stone fireplace, watching
her rings sparkle in the light of the wood fire, and resting one pretty
foot on a paw of the left-hand carved stone wolf that supports a ledge
of the mantelpiece--just as if it belonged to her and she had tamed it.
She glanced up when I appeared, and smiled vaguely, but didn't speak.
She seemed thoughtful.

After awhile, Emily came, swishing silkily. Mrs. Senter began to talk to
her, praising the place; and then, just before the quarter
past--dinner-time--Sir Lionel joined us, looking nice, but tired. Mrs.
Senter gave him a sweet smile, and he smiled back, absent-mindedly. He
gave her his arm in to dinner, and she did clever things with her
eyelashes, which made her seem to blush. She wore a white dress I'd not
seen yet, a simple string of pearls round her neck, and quite a maidenly
or bridal look. I couldn't wonder at Sir Lionel if he admired her! At
the dinner-table (which was beautiful with flowers, lots of silver, and
old crystal--a picture against the dark oak panelling) Mrs. Senter was
on his right hand, I on his left, his sister playing hostess. This was
as usual; but as it was the first time in his own house, somehow it made
Mrs. Senter seem of more importance. He and she talked together a good
deal, and she said some witty things, but spent herself mostly in
drawing him out. He didn't speak to me, except to deign a question about
my room, or ask whether I would have a certain thing to eat. I felt a
dreadful lump, and worth about "thirty cents," as Dad used to say.

After dinner, when Emily took us to a charming drawing-room, all white,
with an old spinet in one corner, Sir Lionel stopped away for a few
minutes; but when he came Mrs. Senter grabbed him immediately. She
wouldn't let him hear, when Emily inquired if I could sing, accompanying
myself on the spinet, but began asking him eagerly about the library,
which it seems is rather famous.

"You shall see it to-morrow, if you like," said he.

"Oh, mayn't I have a peep to-night?" she begged, prettily. "D