BY
AGNES & EGERTON CASTLE

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LTD.
TORONTO LONDON NEW YORK
ST. PAUL’S HOUSE WARWICK SQUARE E.C.4

CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface[ ix]
Prologue[ xiii]
CHAPTER I
How my Lady Kilcroney entered into Royal
Service under the Shadow of the Italian
Hat trimmed by Miss Pamela Pounce		[ 17]
CHAPTER II
In which Miss Pamela Pounce is Ordered to
Pack		[ 47]
CHAPTER III
In which Miss Pamela Pounce, the Milliner’s
Assistant, becomes Arbiter of Life and
Death in High Society		[ 58]
CHAPTER IV
Showing Storm Within and Without[ 79]
CHAPTER V
In which Miss Pamela Pounce demonstrates
the Value of Virtue to her Family and
her Friends		[ 106]
CHAPTER VI
In which my Lady Kilcroney Strikes a Match
and Miss Pounce throws Cold Water on
it		[ 131]
CHAPTER VII
In which is Manifest the Hand of the Sainted
Julia		[ 152]
CHAPTER VIII
In which a Wonderful Bit of Luck comes
out of Miss Pounce’s Bandbox for Somebody
Else		[ 162]
CHAPTER IX
In which Miss Pamela Pounce has done with
Love		[ 187]
CHAPTER X
In which Miss Pamela Pounce sets Three
Black Feathers for Tragedy		[ 202]
CHAPTER XI
In which there is a Prodigious Scandal about
Pink Flounces		[ 227]
CHAPTER XII
In which my Lady Kilcroney insists on the
Duty of Morality		[ 238]
CHAPTER XIII
In which my Lady Kilcroney makes an Indelicate
Fuss		[ 254]
CHAPTER XIV
In which Kitty is more Incomparable than
Ever		[ 274]
CHAPTER XV
In which the Mad Brat takes the Bit between
her Teeth, but Miss Pamela Pounce
Keeps Hold of the Reins		[ 285]
CHAPTER XVI
In which my Lady Kilcroney has the Last
Word		[ 313]

PREFACE

There can be no doubt that shedding her petticoats a woman has shed much, if not all, of her femininity, till she is now merely a person of an opposite sex. She is a female; for nothing will ever make her a man, but Woman (with a capital W), Woman with her charm, her elusiveness, her mystery, her reserves, her virginal withdrawals, her exquisite yieldings; she is that no longer.

How much of her queenship has she not given up with her petticoats?

At no time was Woman more thoroughly feminine, more absolutely mistress of her own fascinations and of the hearts of men, than in the eighteenth century; preferably the latter half.

That was a time when it may be said that no woman could look ugly; that beauty became irresistible. Take the period consecrated by the art of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and of Romney; take the picture of the Parson’s Daughter, by the latter artist; that little face, so piquante, innocent, fresh, sly, mischievous, is nothing at all without its cloud of powdered curls but a very ordinary visage; almost common indeed! With its distinctive coiffure, framing, softening, etherealising, giving depth to the eyes and allurement to the smile; how irresistibly delicious! How irresistibly delicious, too, is the mode which exposes the young throat so modestly between the soft folds of the muslin kerchief.