In this particular, however, Mrs.
Glegg did her sister Bessy some injustice, for Mrs.Tulliver had really made great efforts to induce Maggie to wear a leghorn bonnet and a dyed silk frock made out of her aunt Glegg's, but the results had been such that Mrs.Tulliver was obliged to bury them in her maternal bosom; for Maggie, declaring that the frock smelt of nasty dye, had taken an opportunity of basting it together with the roast beef the first Sunday she wore it, and finding this scheme answer, she had subsequently pumped on the bonnet with its green ribbons, so as to give it a general resemblance to a sage cheese garnished with withered lettuces.

I must urge in excuse for Maggie, that Tom had laughed at her in the bonnet, and said she looked like an old Judy.

Aunt Pullet, too, made presents of clothes, but these were always pretty enough to please Maggie as well as her mother.

Of all her sisters, Mrs.Tulliver certainly preferred her sister Pullet, not without a return of preference; but Mrs.Pullet was sorry Bessy had those naughty, awkward children; she would do the best she could by them, but it was a pity they weren't as good and as pretty as sister Deane's child.

Maggie and Tom, on their part, thought their aunt Pullet tolerable, chiefly because she was not their aunt Glegg.