Mary considers her a treasure, as I have told
you; but she has bid me declare to you that
she will not allow her to come here unless you
promise to treat her at all points as a lady."

Lady Helen opened her eyes and looked
aghast.

"What! make her an equal?" she exclaimed.
"Bring one's dressmaker into one's drawing-
room! How ridiculously like Mary's notions!
Janet, love, what do you think of such a
proposal?"

"Rather high a price to pay for the making
of a gown, I think," said Miss Janet, with that
curl coming over her lips, "to have the
seamstress at one's elbow at the dinner-table."

"But then it is not the case of merely
making a gown," said Lady Helen; " my maid
can turn out a neat gown when necessary.
This is a case of style and ornament and fashion,
my darling. It were worth some little sacrifice
to secure such results. But then, as you say,
to iiave one's seamstress at the dinner-table!
Dear Margaret, are there no other terms to be
made than these?"

Mrs. Hazeldean laughed heartily.

"What a trouble I have brought to you!"
she said." But I said nothing about a dinner-
table. Mary will be satisfied, I dare say, if
you keep her little friend from amongst the
servants."

Lady Helen heaved a sigh of relief.

"I can readily promise that," she said,
gratefully, "and I will engage to show her
kindness and attention. Let me see. I can
give her a couple of rooms in the east tower,
above Madge. And, by the way, that reminds
me that poor Madge will expect to be invited
to this conclave."

A bell having been rung and a message sent,
a fourth lady made her appearance in the room.

This lady was of age uncertain, of looks ill-
favoured, and in manner of the style known as
"flighty." She wore a short yellow gown of
Chinese silk, trimmed with rows of little flounces
to the knee. She wore sandalled shoes and
mittens, and beautiful large clocks upon her
stockings. She wore a band going round her
head, fastened by a little brooch upon her forehead.
In this brooch was a tiny miniature of
her lover of bygone days, who had been drowned
in the deep seas on his way home to make her
his wife. This lady was a second cousin of
Lady Helen; not mad, as had sometimes been
startlingly proved, but a little more than
"odd," to say the least. She was the Honourable
Madge M'Naughten by name, and never
forgot the dignity of her title. It had come to
her late in life, without bringing any lightening
of a poverty that had half-crazed her youth. But
it had soothed her so much that, after its
acquisition, she had consented to accept the
bounty of her cousin, Lady Helen. And she
was known to all comers, never as Miss
M'Naughten, but always, for her satisfaction, as
the "Honourable Madge."

"Now, Madge," said Lady Helen, "we are
going to have a talk. Here is Margaret going
to find us the very thing we want. The
dressmaker, you remember, whom you and I have
quarrelled about!"

"I like flounces, you know," said the
Honourable Madge, sitting down by Mrs. Hazeldean
with a confidential air. "They furnish
the figure so much, especially when it is thin.
And I have always been as thin as a whipping-
post. Members of noble families are often
observed to be thin."

And Miss Madge shook out all her little
fluttering frills, and drew up her figure, which,
indeed, had somewhat the outlines of a
broomstick.

"You shall be flounced up to your neck, if
you have the fancy," said Lady Helen; who, to
do her justice, was always indulgent and
considerate with this cousin whom she sheltered.
"But, dear Margaret," she continued, "I trust
there will be no mistake about the attainments
of this young person. Poor Mary, you know,
had never much taste for style, even in the
world. I should like to see a specimen of the
young woman's work before I made the final
arrangements to bring her here."

"Dolls!" cried the Honourable Madge,
clapping her mittens together in excitement;
"dolls, my dear Helen, would be the plan.
Fit them as if they were women, flounce them
and trim them. Copy them from the fashion-
books and send them in a box."

"An excellent plan, I declare!" said Lady
Helen. "I will write about it to Mary myself."

Mrs. Hazeldean's business had now come
to a conclusion. "I think it will be better to
to say nothing about Lady Humphrey," she
reflected, as she retraced her steps down the
glen.

So letters came flying from Glenluce to the
Mother Augustine. "I think they will treat
her fairly; we must try and make her happy,"
wrote Mrs. Hazeldean. But Lady Helen's
letter was all about the dolls.

Therefore Hester set to work to furnish
specimens of her skill. Pretty scraps of silks and
satins were procured for her, some well-shaped
little dolls, and some pictures out of the latest
book of fashions. Sometimes she brought her
sewing to a little table in the convalescent
ward, by the bedside of the young milliner who
loved to talk about the country. Hester also
might be sent away to live among fresh hills.
Would the sick girl tell her more about the
mountains? And the sick girl told her more.
And the time sped pleasantly by. And the
little dolls were clothed and sent away.

And the dolls did their duty. Judging from
her letters Lady Helen's cup of happiness was
now full. She was anxious only to receive the
young dressmaker under her roof. If propriety
had permitted it she could almost have taken
her into her arms.

Lady Humphrey was duly informed of the
Mother Augustine's exertions, and their
success. I will not pause to expose her private
feelings on the occasion; neither have I time
to repeat the thanks which she poured out in