Law, my dear; they take them, many of them, from us old maids, almost as if we were only paying our debts in giving them." And then Miss Anne gave her a cloth cloak, very warm, with pretty buttons and gimp trimmings,--just such a cloak as any girl might like to wear who thought that she would be seen out walking by her Major Grantly on a Christmas morning.

Grace Crawley did not expect to be seen out walking by her Major Grantly, but nevertheless she liked the cloak.

By the power of her practical will, and by her true sympathy, the elder Miss Prettyman had for a while conquered the annoyance which, on Grace's part, was attached to the receiving of gifts, by the consciousness of her poverty; and when Miss Anne, with some pride in the tone of her voice, expressed a hope that Grace would think the cloak pretty, Grace put her arms pleasantly round her friend's neck, and declared that it was very pretty,--the prettiest cloak in all the world! Grace was met at the Guestwick railway-station by her friend Lilian Dale, and was driven over to Allington in a pony carriage belonging to Lilian's uncle, the squire of the parish.

I think she will be excused in having put on her new cloak, not so much because of the cold as with a view of making the best of herself before Mrs.Dale.
And yet she knew that Mrs.Dale would know all the circumstances of her poverty, and was very glad that it should be so.

"I am so glad that you have come, dear," said Lily.