What do you say to going home on foot ?" Fanny was ready and willing to accompany her mistress.
The carriage was dismissed, and they set forth on their walk.
As they passed the inn called "The Spaniards," two women who were standing at the garden gate stared at Iris, and smiled.

A few paces further on, they were met by an errand-boy.

He too looked at the young lady, and put his hand derisively to his head, with a shrill whistle expressive of malicious enjoyment.

"I appear to amuse these people," Iris said.

"What do they see in me ?" Fanny answered with an effort to preserve her gravity, which was not quite successfully disguised: "I beg your pardon, Miss; I think they notice the curious contrast between your beautiful bonnet and your shabby cloak." Persons of excitable temperament have a sense of ridicule, and a dread of it, unintelligible to their fellow-creatures who are made of coarser material.