‘You should have seen the things Miss Freeman had, Lady Mary,’ exclaimed the damsel, ’the daughter of that cotton-spinning gentleman from Manchester, who lives at The Gables—­you should have seen her new gowns and things when she was married.  Mrs. Freeman’s maid keeps company with my brother James—­he’s in the stables at Freeman’s, you know, Lady Mary—­and she asked me in to look at the trousseau two days before the wedding.  I never saw such beautiful dresses—­such hats—­such bonnets—­such jackets and mantles.  It was like going into one of those grand shops at York, and having all the things in the shop pulled out for one to look at—­such silks and satins—­and trimmed—­ah! how those dresses was trimmed.  The mystery was how the young lady could ever get herself into them, or sit down when she’d got one of them on.’

’Instruments of torture, Clara.  I should hate such gowns, even if I were going to marry a rich man, as I suppose Miss Freeman was.’

’Not a bit of it, Lady Mary.  She was only going to marry a Bolton doctor with a small practice; but her maid told me she was determined she’d get all she could out of her pa, in case he should lose all his money and go bankrupt.  They said that trousseau cost two thousand pounds.’

’Well, Clara, I’d rather have my tailor gowns, in which I can scramble about the ghylls and crags just as I like.’  There was a pale yellow Indian silk, smothered with soft yellow lace, which would serve for a wedding gown; for indifferent as Mary was to the great clothes question, she wanted to look in some wise as a bride.  A neat chocolate-coloured cloth, almost new from the tailor’s hands, with a little cloth toque to match, would do for the wedding journey.  All the details of Mary’s wardrobe were the perfection of neatness.  She had grown very neat and careful in her habits since her engagement, anxious to be industrious and frugal in all things—­a really handy housewife for a hard-worked bread-winner.  And now she was told that Mr. Hammond was not so poor as she had thought.  She would not be obliged to stint herself, and manage, as she had supposed when she went about among the cottagers, taking lessons in household economy.  It was almost a disappointment.

She and Clara finished the packing that night, Mary being much too excited for the possibility of sleep.  There was not much to pack, only one roomy American trunk—­a trunk which held everything—­a Gladstone bag for things that might possibly be wanted in a hurry, and a handsome dressing-bag, Maulevrier’s last birthday gift to his sister.

Mary had received no gifts from her lover, save the plain gold engagement ring, and a few new books sent straight from the publishers.  Clara took care to inform her young mistress that Miss Freeman’s sweetheart had sent her all manner of splendid presents, scent bottles, photograph albums, glove boxes, and other things of beauty, albeit his means were supposed to be nil.  It was evident that Clara disapproved of Mr. Hammond’s conduct in this matter, and even suspected him of meanness.