Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/241

 Never were inoffensive and obscure women dragged so suddenly into notoriety. A wax model of Augusta was set up at Madame Tussaud's, and the baby clothes she was wearing when taken to the workhouse were shown in a glass case. She netted £700 by their sale, which she looked on as in a measure compensatory for her outlay on the Water. The devotion of Prudence to her sister was everywhere commented on. She became quite a popular personage, and to her surprise and delight, received no less than five offers of marriage from persons totally unknown to her.

While their interest in the case was unabated, the medical woman, Mrs. Whitley, Mrs. Dumaresq, and the other boarders, felt somewhat shy of making any advances to the sisters. Soft, and gentle, and foolish, as Prudence was, they felt that she could not and would not forgive their impertinent curiosity and interference; and yet there was much to excuse their conduct, for such cases as Miss Semaphore's are rare. When the sisters were finally making their way out of court, having heard good Mrs. Brown condemned to a term of six months imprisonment with hard labour, Major Jones, how