“You must show them now you’ve brought them out, Louise,” she declared.  “I am sure that Mr. Brooks’ advice will be most valuable.  But mind, if you dare to show mine, I’ll tear them into pieces.”

“I wasn’t going to, dear,” Louise declared, a little tartly.  “Shall I begin at the beginning, Mr. Brooks, or—­”

“Oh, don’t show those first few, dear,” Selina exclaimed.  “You know they’re not nearly so good as some of the others.  That mill is all out of drawing.”

Mary, who had been elbowed into the background, rose quietly and crossed to the other end of the room.  Brooks followed her for a moment with regretful eyes.  Her simple gown, with the little piece of ribbon around her graceful neck, seemed almost distinguished by comparison with the loud-patterned and dressier blouses of the two girls who had now hemmed him in.  For a moment he ignored the waiting pages.

“Your cousin,” he remarked, “is quite unlike any of you.  Has she been with you long?”

Louise looked up a little tartly.

“Oh, about three years.  You are quite right when you say that she is unlike any of us.  It doesn’t seem nice to complain about her exactly, but she really is terribly trying, isn’t she, Selina?”

Selina nodded, and dropped her voice.

“She is getting worse,” she declared.  “She is becoming a positive trouble to us.”

Brooks endeavoured to look properly sympathetic, and considered himself justified in pursuing the conversation.  “Indeed!  May I ask in what way?”

“Oh, she has such old-fashioned ideas,” Louise said, confidentially.  “I’ve quite lost patience with her, and so has Selina; haven’t you, dear?  She never goes to parties if she can help it, she is positively rude to all our friends, and the sarcastic things she says sometimes are most unpleasant.  You know, papa is very, very good to her.”

“Yes, indeed,” Selina interrupted.  “You know, Mr. Brooks, she has no father and mother, and she was living quite alone in London when papa found her out and brought her here—­and in the most abject poverty.  I believe he found her in a garret.  Fancy that!”

“And now,” Louise continued, “he allows her for her clothes exactly the same as he does us—­and look at her.  Would you believe it, now?  She is like that nearly every evening, although we have friends dropping in continually.  Of course I don’t believe in extravagance, but if a girl has relations who are generous enough to give her the means, I do think that, for their sake, she ought to dress properly.  I think that she owes it to them, as well as to herself.”

“And out of doors it is positively worse,” Selina whispered, impressively.  “I declare,” she added, with a simper, “that although nobody can say that I am proud, there are times when I am positively ashamed to be seen out with her.  What she does with her money I can’t imagine.”

Brooks, who was something of a critic in such matters, and had recognized the art of her severely simple gown, smiled to himself.  He was wise enough, however, not to commit himself.