Rhoda was not, as he thought, warmly enough clothed for the time of year; and a bad cold might be easily caught by a person in her condition.
Iris entered the farm-house; leaving Fanny Mere, after what the doctor had said on the subject of visitors, to wait for her in the carriage.
After an absence of barely ten minutes Miss Henley returned; personally changed, not at all to her own advantage, by the introduction of a novelty in her dress.

She had gone into the farmhouse, wearing a handsome mantle of sealskin.

When she came out again, the mantle had vanished, and there appeared in its place a common cloak of drab-coloured cloth.

Noticing the expression of blank amazement in the maid's face, Iris burst out laughing.
"How do you think I look in my new cloak ?" she asked.
Fanny saw nothing to laugh at in the sacrifice of a sealskin mantle.

"I must not presume, Miss, to give an opinion," she said gravely.
"At any rate," Iris continued, "you must be more than mortal if my change of costume doesn't excite your curiosity.