The Real Charlotte. II 



she saw there, and, putting down the candle again, she 

 plucked a large silk handkerchief from her pocket, and, with 

 some hideous preliminary heavings of her shoulders, burst 

 into transports of noisy grief. 



CHAPTER III. 



A DAMP winter and a chilly spring had passed in their usual 

 mildly disagreeable manner over that small Irish country 

 town which was alluded to in the beginning of the last 

 chapter. The shop windows had exhibited their usual 

 zodiacal succession, and had progressed through red com- 

 forters and woollen gloves, to straw hats, tennis shoes, and 

 coloured Summer Numbers. The residents of Lismoyle 

 were already congratulating each other on having "set" their 

 lodgings to the summer visitors ; the steamer was plying on 

 the lake, the militia was under canvas, and on this very 

 fifteenth of June, Lady Dysart of Bruff was giving her first 

 lawn-tennis party. 



Miss Charlotte Mullen had taken advantage of the occa- 

 sion to emerge from the mourning attire that since her aunt's 

 death had so misbecome her sallow face, and was driving 

 herself to Bruff in the phaeton that had been Mrs. Mullen's, 

 and a gown chosen with rather more view to effect than was 

 customary with her. She was under no delusion as to her 

 appearance, and, early recognising its hopeless character, 

 she had abandoned all superfluities of decoration. A habit 

 of costume so defiantly simple as to border on eccentricity 

 had at least two advantages ; it freed her from the absurdity 

 of seeming to admire herself, and it was cheap. During the 

 late Mrs. Mullen's lifetime Charlotte had studied economy. 

 The most rehable old persons had, she was wont to reflect, 

 a slippery turn in them where their wills were concerned, 

 and it was well to be ready for any contingency of fortune. 

 Things had turned out very well after all ; there had been 

 one inconvenient legacy — that " Little Francie " to whom 

 the old lady's thoughts had turned, happily too late for her 

 to give any practical emphasis to them — but that bequest 

 was of the kind that may be repudiated if desirable. The 

 rest of the disposition had been admirably convenient, and, 



