However, because the dressmaker in fact was extremely impressed with all that the Countess told her, she managed later the same afternoon to fit Honora with several gowns.

She also provided her with some exquisite nightgowns and chemises that were more beautiful than anything Honora could have imagined.

When she said so to the Countess, her aunt replied in an extremely disagreeable voice,

“The housemaids at Tyne Castle will hardly expect my niece to wear the rags you wore at school.”

Then she added in an even more vitriolic tone,

“You could certainly not be married in them!”

The thought of this obviously put her in such a bad temper that Honora was afraid to say anything.

Equally she could not help being thrilled with the lovely materials and sketches that were brought for her aunt’s approval and also with the heavenly gowns that were altered for her.

She remembered how her mother had to scrimp and save to buy herself even one new dress.

She had made her own nightgowns, sewn with tiny stitches which she had learned how to do when she was a girl and which were the same, Honora found, as the nuns used at the Convent.

Because she felt embarrassed at spending too much of her uncle’s money, she had been very economical with her clothes while she was in Florence.

She knew that for all the pupils huge bills for books and anything appertaining to the lessons were added onto the regular fees, which were in themselves very large.

Now because her aunt was so contemptuous of what she was wearing she thought perhaps that she had been needlessly sensitive about it.

She would have been wiser to buy what she wanted, as some of the other girls did, and let the Mother Superior send the bills to her uncle.

But it was too late now to think about that and she told herself that she must be very grateful for what she was receiving.

She was not consulted as to what was purchased, but she was aware that her aunt, because she was so well-dressed herself, had very good taste and the gowns anyway were in the very latest style and many of the models came from Paris.

There were also bonnets, shawls, slippers, gloves, mittens and a dozen more items that her aunt said she required.

All of these when they had seen them in the shops were brought back to the house later to be tried on in different colours and different designs.

Because everything she did seemed to annoy the Countess, it was a relief when Honora learned after they had returned to Grosvenor Square for luncheon that her aunt had an appointment for the afternoon.

“Mrs. Morton will look after you,” the Countess said. “I shall be returning after tea and by that time you should have finished.”

“If it is any trouble, I will not bother Mrs. Morton,” Honora replied.

That was, of course, the wrong thing to say.