She was always lovely and beautifully dressed, but to-night she was prettier and finer than ever before.

You could fairly hear their teeth click as some of the most envious of those girls caught sight of her, for she was wearing a new hat!--a black velvet store hat, fitting closely over her crown, with a rim of twisted velvet, a scarlet bird's wing, and a big silver buckle.

Her dress was of scarlet cloth cut in forms, and it fitted as if she had been melted and poured into it.

It was edged around the throat, wrists, and skirt with narrow bands of fur, and she wore a loose, long, silk-lined coat of the same material, and worst of all, furs--furs such as we had heard wealthy and stylish city ladies were wearing.

A golden brown cape that reached to her elbows, with ends falling to the knees, finished in the tails of some animal, and for her hands a muff as big as a nail keg.
Now, there was not a girl in that room, except the Princess, an she had those clothes, who wouldn't have flirted like a peacock, almost bursting with pride; but because the Princess had them, and they didn't, they sat stolid and sullen, and cast glances at each other as if they were saying: "The stuck-up thing!" "Thinks she's smart, don't she ?" Many of them should have gone to meet her and made her welcome, for she was not of our district and really their guest.