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Alice remained silent, confused and embarrassed, and not knowing how to refuse. They were both standing, and she noticed how much nobler and more stately Lizzie looked in this new mood; she seemed more like a fine antique statue of the Cumæan Sibyl than a modern professional beauty in a velvet gown. Still with the same unsmiling gaze she went on, with the air of a princess making a request, rather than asking a favour: “I cannot explain to you why I desire this so much. Mr. Austin is very busy with our hurried departure; he does not wish me to see our friends, and say good-bye.I should like you to do this for me. I am going to town to-morrow, and may never perhaps return here. I don’t want to see any of these people again. They have been so spiteful—said such horrid things—I hate them all!” She threw her head back, and moved her hand as if to brush off some teasing thoughts.

Little Dulcie stood on the hearthrug with a white kitten under each arm, tightly squeezed as to their necks and very limp as to their furry legs, while their Persian mother mewed imploringly but in vain, agitating her magnificent tail and rubbing herself against the child’s arm. Dulcie’s eyes were too much taken up with the grand lady to notice the sufferings of her friends;