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owed this triumph to her splendid horses until her more knowledgeable sister-in-law remarked chattily, as she stepped into the carriage that day: "Isn't it a fortunate circumstance, Nell, that you are fair and I am dark? I don't wonder at it that everyone stares to see us: we take the shine out of all the other females! Mr. Bottisham told Hardwick so, and Hardwick says it is a compliment well worth having, because Mr. Bottisham is in general quite odiously censorious. I think," she added, dispassionately considering the matter, "that you are prettier than I am, but on the other hand, I have a great deal of countenance, besides being dark, which is more in the mode, so I don't excessively mind your being beautiful."
    Nell could not help laughing, but, with Miss Wilby's precepts in mind, she ventured to suggest to Letty that such candour was a trifle improper.
    "That is the sort of thing Aunt Chudleigh says," observed Letty, unabashed. "For my part, I see nothing improper in speaking the truth. And you can't deny that it is the truth!" She made herself comfortable beside Nell, and unfurled a pink sunshade. "We make a perfect picture," she said complacently.
    "I collect Lord Hardwick told you so!"
    "Everyone tells me so!"
    "Well, take care they don't next tell you that you are abominably conceited," recommended Nell.
    "They won't," asserted Letty, with confidence. "No one I care a fig for, at all events, I daresay Felix might, for I never knew anyone so stuffy!"
    However, when they presently saw Mr. Hethersett strolling in the Park there was nothing to be read in that stickler's countenance but critical appreciation. Nell directed her coachman to pull up his horses, and when Mr. Hethersett came up to the carriage leaned forward to give him her hand. "How do you do? I hoped we might see you. Do you mean to go to the Beadings' masquerade next week? Cardross has been obliged to cry off: isn't it infamous of him? Will you dine with us, and give us your escort in his stead?"
    He looked regretful, and shook his head. "Can't," he said mournfully. "Excused myself to Mrs. Beading. Told her I had another engagement. Not the thing to go there after that. Pity!"
    She smiled. "You cannot hoax me into believing that you think so! Confess! You dislike masquerades!"
    "Not trying to hoax you: happy to escort you anywhere! Not but what it ain't the sort of party I like. If I were you I'd cry off, because you won't enjoy it. Not just in your style."
    "I declare, you are the stupidest creature, Felix!" Letty broke in. "Why shouldn't we enjoy it? It will be rare mummery, for we are all to wear masks, and—"
    "Yes, a vast rout of people, and rompings!" interrupted Mr. Hethersett, in a tone of deep disapproval. "You may enjoy it: I never said you wouldn't. All I said was, Lady Cardross won't. Do you want a piece of advice, cousin?"
    "No," said Letty crossly.
    "Mistake," he said, shaking his head. "Not saying that ain't an elegant gown: it is. Not saying that hat don't become you: it does." He left an ominous pause, during which Letty eyed him uneasily. She might despise him for what she considered his antiquated notions of propriety, but no aspirant to high fashion could afford to ignore his pronouncements on all matters of sartorial taste. He delivered his verdict. "I don't like those pink ribbons. Or the feather. Insipid."
    "Insipid?" she exclaimed indignantly. She cast a glance down at the double row of pink knots which ornamented her dress of delicate fawn-coloured muslin. They exactly matched the feather than hung down on one side of a little straw hat which was turned up on the other side, and worn at a dashing angle on her glossy black ringlets. French kid gloves of the same pink completed a toilet which she had thought to be, until this painful moment, in the first crack of the mode. Doubt now entered her soul; she turned her anxious gaze upon her cousin. "It isn't! You are saying it to vex me!"
    "No wish to vex you. Just thought you wanted to