“They can, and they will,—­you may be sure of that!” said Cicely, satirically—­“Is this a ‘dressed’ county, Maryllia?”

Maryllia gave vent to a peal of laughter.

“I should say not,—­but I really don’t know!” she replied,—­“People have called on me, but I have not, as yet, returned their calls.  We’ll do that in this coming week.  The only person I have seen, who poses as a ‘county’ lady, is an elderly spinster named Tabitha Pippitt, only daughter of Sir Morton Pippitt, who is a colonial manufacturer, and, therefore, not actually in the ‘county’ at all.  Miss Tabitha was certainly not ‘dressed,’ she was merely covered.”

“That’s the very height of propriety!” declared Cicely—­“For, after all, covering alone is necessary.  ‘Dress,’ in the full sense of the word, implies vanity and all its attendant sins.  Gigue says you can always pick out a very dull, respectable woman by the hidecmsness of her clothes.  I expect Miss Tabitha is dull.”

“She is—­most unquestionably!  But I’m afraid she is only a reflex of country life generally, Cicely.  Country life is dull,—­especially in England.”

“Then why do you go in for it?” queried Cicely, arching her black brows perplexedly.

“Simply to escape something even duller,”—­laughed Maryllia—­“London society and its ’Souls’!”

Cicely laughed too, and shrugged her shoulders expressively.  She understood all that was implied.  And with her whole heart she rejoiced that her friend whom she loved with an almost passionate adoration and gratitude, had voluntarily turned her back on the ‘Smart Set,’ and so, of her own accord, instead of through her godfathers and godmothers, had ’renounced the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh.’

Within a very few days St. Rest became aware of Cicely’s quaint personality, for she soon succeeded in making herself familiar with everybody in the place.  She had a knack of winning friends.  She visited old Josey Letherbarrow, and made him laugh till he nearly choked, so that Maryllia had to pat him vigorously on the back to enable him to recover his breath—­she cut jokes with Mrs. Tapple,—­ chatted with the sexton, Adam Frost, and scattered ‘sweeties’ galore among all his children,—­and she furthermore startled the village choir at practice by suddenly flitting into the church and asking Miss Eden, the schoolmistress, to allow her to play the organ accompaniment, and on Miss Eden’s consenting to this proposition, she played in such a fashion that the church seemed filled with musical thunder and the songs of angels,—­and the village choristers, both girls and boys, became awestruck and nervous, and huddled themselves together in a silent group, afraid to open their mouths lest a false note should escape, and spoil the splendour of the wonderful harmony that so mysteriously charmed their souls.  And then, calming the passion of the music down, she