I may say here that my experience of little girls had been almost entirely confined to my cousins, and that I was so overwhelmed and impressed by the loveliness of these two children, and by their quaint, queenly little ways, that time has not dimmed one line in the picture that they then made upon my mind.

I can see them now as clearly as I saw them then, as I stood at the tinsmith's door in the High Street of Oakford--let me see, how many years ago?
("Never mind," says my wife; "go on with the story, my dear," and I go on.) The child who looked the older, but was, as I afterwards discovered, the younger of the two, was also the less pretty.

And yet she had a sweet little face, hair like spun gold, and blue-grey eyes with dark lashes.

She wore a grey frock of some warm material, below which peeped her indoors dress of blue.

The outer coat had a quaint cape like a coachman's, which was relieved by a broad white crimped frill round her throat.