 inquiry, and excited so troublesome a
curiosity as to their lining and comparative merits, together with a
determination to test them by trying on, as to make her post a very conspicuous
one. The ladies who had commodities of their own to sell, and did not want
dressing-gowns, saw at once the frivolity and bad taste of this masculine
preference for goods which any tailor could furnish; and it is possible that the
emphatic notice of various kinds which was drawn towards Miss Tulliver on this
public occasion, threw a very strong and unmistakeable light on her subsequent
conduct in many minds then present. Not that anger, on account of spurned
beauty, can dwell in the celestial breasts of charitable ladies, but rather,
that the errors of persons who have once been much admired necessarily take a
deeper tinge from the mere force of contrast; and also, that to-day Maggie's
conspicuous position, for the first time, made evident certain characteristics
which were subsequently felt to have an explanatory bearing. There was something
rather bold in Miss Tulliver's direct gaze, and something undefinably coarse in
the style of her beauty, which placed her, in the opinion of all feminine
judges, far below her cousin Miss Deane; for the ladies of St Ogg's had now
completely ceded to Lucy their hypothetic claims on the admiration of Mr.
Stephen Guest.
    As for dear little Lucy herself, her late benevolent triumph about the Mill,
and all the affectionate projects she was cherishing for Maggie and Philip,
helped to give her the highest spirits to-day, and she felt nothing but pleasure
in the evidence of Maggie's attractiveness. It is true, she was looking very
charming herself, and Stephen was paying her the utmost attention on this public
occasion; jealously buying up the articles he had seen under her fingers in the
process of making, and gaily helping her to cajole the male customers into the
purchase of the most effeminate futilities. He chose to lay aside his hat and
wear a scarlet fez of her embroidering; but by superficial observers this was
necessarily liable to be interpreted less as a compliment to Lucy than as a mark
of coxcombry. »Guest is a great coxcomb,« young Torry observed; »but then he is
a privileged person in St Ogg's - he carries all before him: if another fellow
did such things, everybody would say he made a fool of himself.«
    And Stephen purchased absolutely nothing from Maggie, until Lucy said, in
rather a vexed under-tone -
    »See, now; all the things of Maggie's knitting will be
