Never had the O’Connor family looked so resplendent.  Nick, to begin with, was a majestic figure in his best suit, with a "boiled" shirt, and a tartan tie which appeared only on great occasions. Bertha and Polly were in fresh washing frocks, and the boys in suits of blue-striped galatea, very smart and summer-like.  But ’Possum, in Aileen’s Christmas gift of the dress that was like the inside of a shell, tall and slender, her face half-eager and half-shy, was an unfamiliar figure at whom many people turned to glance.  Never before had ’Possum been to a regatta, and her inward excitement was almost as keen as Garth’s.  "The kids always went," she had told Aileen.  "I didn’t.  The old dungarees didn’t seem to fit in."