(not without stammering) that it was very bright to me then, though it had been very dark to me a minute before.

‘Do you mean a compliment?’ said Dora, ‘or that the weather has really changed?’

I stammered worse than before, in replying that I meant no compliment, but the plain truth; though I was not aware of any change having taken place in the weather. It was in the state of my own feelings, I added bashfully: to clench the explanation.

I never saw such curls — how could I, for there never were such curls! — as those she shook out to hide her blushes. As to the straw hat and blue ribbons which was on the top of the curls, if I could only have hung it up in my room in Buckingham Street, what a priceless possession it would have been!