What, therefore, could a lady of such patrician birth have in common with a Mrs.Mortlock or a Mrs.Dredge?
Alas! however, Miss Slowcum was poor--she was very poor, and she was a great deal too genteel to work.

The terms at Penelope Mansion were by no means high, and in order to live she was obliged to put up with uncongenial company.

She was a very tall and angular person--her face was long and thin, her eyes small, her mouth undecided, but in her heart of hearts she was by no means wanting in good nature; and when, the night before, Jasmine, with her charming little face, offered her some of the country flowers, she began to take an interest in the fresh girls who had come to the rather antiquated house in Wright Street.
It was really good-natured of Miss Slowcum to offer to accompany the girls on their first walk in London.

She had the greatest horror of ever appearing remarkable and she felt really alarmed at the thought of taking four unsophisticated country lasses abroad.

It was bad enough to offer to escort the Mainwarings, who, however _gauche_ they might appear, were undoubtedly ladies, but to take Poppy, _alias_ Sarah, as well, was really trying.