‘Oh, very,’ she said.

‘But there was a simplicity that I liked about the other.’

Could it be then that for the last five years he had stood aloof from her because she had arrayed herself in fashionable attire?  She was still very red in the face, still suffering from wounded vanity, still conscious of that soreness which affects us all when we are made to understand that we are considered to have failed there, where we have most thought that we excelled.  But her womanly art enabled her quickly to conceal the pain.  ‘I have made a promise,’ she said, ’and you will find that I will keep it.’

‘What promise?’ asked Mr Gibson.

’I said that I would do as you bade me, and so I will.  I would have done it sooner if I had known that you wished it.  I would never have worn it at all if I had thought that you disliked it.’

‘I think that a little of them is very nice,’ said Mr Gibson.  Mr Gibson was certainly an awkward man.  But there are men so awkward that it seems to be their especial province to say always the very worst thing at the very worst moment.

She became redder than ever as she was thus told of the hugeness of her favourite ornament.  She was almost angry now.  But she restrained herself, thinking perhaps of how she might teach him taste in days to come as he was teaching her now.  ‘I will change it tomorrow,’ she said with a smile.  ‘You come and see to-morrow.’

Upon this he got up and took his hat and made his escape, assuring her that he would come and see her on the morrow.  She let him go now without any attempt at further tenderness.  Certainly she had gained much during the interview.  He had as good as told her in what had been her offence, and of course, when she had remedied that offence, he could hardly refuse to return to her.  She got up as soon as she was alone, and looked at her head in the glass, and told herself that the pity would be great.  It was not that the chignon was in itself a thing of beauty, but that it imparted so unmistakable an air of fashion!  It divested her of that dowdiness which she feared above all things, and enabled her to hold her own among other young women, without feeling that she was absolutely destitute of attraction.  There had been a certain homage paid to it, which she had recognised and enjoyed.  But it was her ambition to hold her own, not among young women, but among clergymen’s wives, and she would certainly obey his orders.  She could not make the attempt now because of the complications; but she certainly would make it before she laid her head on the pillow—­and would explain to Camilla that it was a little joke between herself and Mr Gibson.

CHAPTER XLVIII

MR GIBSON IS PUNISHED

Miss Stanbury was divine in her wrath, and became more and more so daily as new testimony reached her of dishonesty on the part of the Frenches and of treachery on the part of Mr Gibson.  And these people, so empty, so vain, so weak, were getting the better of her, were conquering her, were robbing her of her prestige and her ancient glory, simply because she herself was too generous to speak out and tell the truth!  There was a martyrdom to her in this which was almost unendurable.