I shall just slip on a semi-toilette myself." Joan had difficulty in deciding on her own frock.

Her four evening dresses, as she walked round them, spread out upon the bed, all looked too imposing, for what Mrs.Phillips had warned her would be a "homely affair." She had one other, a greyish-fawn, with sleeves to the elbow, that she had had made expressly for public dinners and political At Homes.

But that would be going to the opposite extreme, and might seem discourteous--to her hostess.

Besides, "mousey" colours didn't really suit her.

They gave her a curious sense of being affected.