’Oh, you dear little messenger of good news!  There was one of the heathen deities in Mangnall’s Questions whose office that was.  The letter is dated from Calais.  They’re coming home!  She’s bought me a shawl and a bonnet!  The dear creature!  Always thinking of others before herself.  Good fortune cannot spoil her.  They’ve a fortnight left of their holiday!  Their house is not quite ready; they’re coming here.  Oh, now, Mr. Gibson, we must have the new dinner service at Watts’s I’ve set my heart on so long!  “Home” Cynthia calls this house.  I’m sure it has been a home to her, poor darling!  I doubt if there is another man in the world who would have treated his stepdaughter like dear papa!  And, Molly, you must have a new gown.’

‘Come, come!  Remember I belong to the last generation,’ said Mr Gibson.

‘And Cynthia will not notice what I wear,’ said Molly, bright with pleasure at the thought of seeing her again.

’No! but Walter will.  He has such a quick eye for dress, and I think I rival papa; if he is a good stepfather, I’m a good stepmother, and I could not bear to see my Molly shabby, and not looking her best.  I must have a new gown too.  It won’t do to look as if we had nothing but the dresses which we wore at the wedding!’

But Molly stood against the new gown for herself, and urged that if Cynthia and Walter were to come to visit them often, they had better see them as they really were, in dress, habits, and appointments.  When Mr. Gibson had left the room, Mrs. Gibson softly reproached Molly for her obstinacy.

’You might have allowed me to beg for a new gown for you, Molly, when you knew how much I had admired that figured silk at Brown’s the other day.  And now, of course, I can’t be so selfish as to get it for myself, and you to have nothing.  You should learn to understand the wishes of other people.  Still, on the whole, you are a dear, sweet girl, and I only wish—­well, I know what I wish; only dear papa does not like it to be talked about.  And now cover me up close, and let me go to sleep, and dream about my dear Cynthia and my new shawl!’