of their borders. The habit of arching up one or other of the
eyebrows, in surprise or interrogation, gave a drollery to the
otherwise nonchalant sweetness of the countenance. The mass of
raven black hair was only adorned by a crimson ribbon, beneath which
it had been thrust into a net, with a long thing that had once been
a curl on the shoulder of the white tumbled bodice worn over a gray
skirt which looked as if it had done solitary duty for the five
weeks since the marriage, and was but slightly relieved by a crimson
sash.

Rosamond made some apology when she saw Cecil's dainty equipment.
"Dressed, you correct little thing! You put me to shame; but I had
no notion which box my evening things are in, and it would have been
serious to irritate the whole concern."

"And she was some time with Anne," added Julius.

"Ah! with my good will Anne should not have been here!" rejoined
Rosamond. "Didn't I meet old Mrs. Nurse at your threshold, with an
invitation from Mrs. Poynsett to dine with her in her room, and
didn't we find the bird flown at the first stroke of the gong?"

"Oh, I am very well!" repeated Anne.

Yet she was far more colourless than Julius, for her complexion was
not only faded by sickness, but was naturally of the whitest blonde
tint; the simple coils of her hair "lint white," and her eyes of the
lightest tint of pure blue. The features were of Scottish type, all
the more so from being exaggerated by recent illness; but they were
handsome enough to show that she must have been a bonnie lassie when