Dorothy at Oak Knowe

“You do us proud, madam, by this call. Pray come in and be seated.”

“Yes, yes, do!” cried John, interrupting. “I’ll just step-an’-fetch the arm-chair out o’ Robin’s room. ’Twas carried there for his mother to rest in. She – ”

The mortified old fellow was vainly trying to put back the smock he had so recklessly discarded and without which he never felt fully dressed. He hated a coat and wore one only on Sundays, at church. But his frantic efforts to don this garment but added to his own discomfiture, for he slipped it on backwards, the buttons behind, grimacing fiercely at his failure to fasten them.