We had feared it might prove dull, plain, dowdy, though wellborn, with only dear Patricia to enliven it; but it was well-dressed, merry, and had not a thought of glancing at the windows or pulling down the blinds, bless its simple heart! The mother entered first, wearing a grey satin gown and a diamond crown that quite established her position in the great world.

Then girls, and more girls: a rose-pink girl, a pale green, a lavender, a yellow, and our Patricia, in a cloud of white with a sparkle of silver, and a diamond arrow in her lustrous hair.
What an English nosegay they made, to be sure, as they stood in the back of the room while paterfamilias approached, and calling each in turn, gave her a lovely bouquet from a huge basket held by the butler.
Everybody's flowers matched everybody's frock to perfection; those of the h'orphan nieces were just as beautiful as those of the daughters, and it is no wonder that the English nosegay descended upon paterfamilias, bore him into the passage, and if they did not kiss him soundly, why did he come back all rosy and crumpled, smoothing his dishevelled hair, and smiling at Lady Brighthelmston?
We speedily named the girls Rose, Mignonette, Violet, and Celandine, each after the colour of her frock.
"But there are only five, and there ought to be six," whispered Salemina, as if she expected to be heard across the street.
"One--two--three--four--five, you are right," said Mr.Beresford.

"The plainest of the lot must be staying in Wales with a maiden aunt who has a lot of money to leave.

The old lady isn't so ill that they can't give the ball, but just ill enough so that she may make her will wrong if left alone; poor girl, to be plain, and then to miss such a ball as this,--hello! the first guest! He is on time to be sure; I hate to be first, don't you ?" The first guest was a strikingly handsome fellow, irreproachably dressed and unmistakably nervous.
"He is afraid he is too early!" "He is afraid that if he waits he'll be too late!" "He doesn't want the driver to stop directly in front of the door." "He has something beside him on the seat of the hansom." "The tissue paper has blown off: it is flowers." "It is a piece! Jove, this IS a rum ball!" "What IS the thing?
No wonder he doesn't drive up to the door and go in with it!" "It is a HARP, as sure as I am alive!" Then electrically from Francesca, "It is Patricia's Irish lover! I forget his name." "Rory!" "Shamus!" "Michael!" "Patrick!" "Terence!" "Hush!" she exclaimed at this chorus of Hibernian Christian names, "it is Patricia's undeclared impecunious lover.

He is afraid that she won't know his gift is a harp, and afraid that the other girls will.