The first people whom he saw were the Misses Cragg--always known, of course, as "The Cragg girls." They were, perhaps, Polchester's most constant and obvious feature.
There were four of them, all as yet unmarried, all with brown-red faces and hard straw hats, short skirts, and tremendous voices; forerunners, in fact, of a type now almost universal.

They played croquet and lawn-tennis, were prominent members of the Archery Club, and hunted when their fathers would let them.

They were terrible Dianas to Jeremy.

He had met one of them once at a Children's Dance, and she had whirled him around until, with a terrified scream, he broke, howling, from her arms, and hid himself in the large bosom of the Jampot.

He was always ashamed of this memory, and he could never see them without blushing; but, to-day, he seemed less afraid of them, and actually, when he passed them, touched his hat and looked them in the face.