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 agreed that it was time to be getting back to their hotel. ‘You may as well brush my skirt, Frank,’ said the lady, ‘it must have got covered with dust, I’m sure.’ He obeyed dutifully; but, after a moment, he said, ‘I don’t know whether you value this dress particularly, my dear, but I’m inclined to think it’s seen its best days. There’s a great bit of it gone.’ ‘Gone? Where?’ said she. ‘I don’t know where it’s gone, but it’s off at the bottom edge behind here.’ She pulled it hastily into sight, and was horrified to find a jagged tear extending some way into the substance of the stuff; very much, she said, as if a dog had rent it away. The dress was, in any case, hopelessly spoilt, to her great vexation, and though they looked everywhere, the missing piece could not be found. There were many ways, they concluded, in which the injury might have come about, for the choir was full of old bits of woodwork with nails sticking out of them. Finally, they could only suppose that one of these had caused the mischief, and that the workmen, who had been about all day, had carried off the particular piece with the fragment of dress still attached to it.

It was about this time, Worby thought, that