"'Being as you wished an immediate answer,'"
suggested Gertrude, and stopped,
exhausted.

"'To your ansum propojial,'" said Dolly,
rushing to the rescue.

"'Made to your umble servant, Barbary
Hann Turnover," prompted Martha.

"That'll" do capital!" cried Mrs. Turnover,
thinking the letter finished. "Who's got a
seal ?"

"I don't think that would satisfy anybody,"
said Mrs. Mapes. " Do you accept, or don't
you?"

"'Which,'" said the lady chiefly interested,
making a great effort—"'which, if you railly
think it's for your 'appiness——'"

"'Happiness'—yes?" said the lady-president.

"'Why, you know best,'" said the laundrymaid,
timidly.

Mrs. Turnover nodded approval.

"Shouldn't you add something about not
being fully prepared—you know, unexpected—
that sort of thing?" asked the housekeeper.

"'Took by surprige,'" resumed the
inexhaustible Dolly.

"'In my hapron and all,'  put in Mrs.
Turnover.

"' I might have simmed—have simmed,'"
said Gertrude, and again collapsed.

"' More cooler,'" suggested Martha.

"'Than suckemstarnces required,'" said the
laundry-maid, timidly interrogative.

"'But, for the futur, you shan't—you shan't
—have no—n—'" hesitated Dolly.

"'No call to complain,'" said Mrs. Turnover,
desperately. "There, that'll do. I signs it."

"Oh, Mrs. Turnover, ma'am, there's something
forgot," said Dolly.

"Forgot?"

"They usually, so they tells me" (Dolly
blushed), "sends a lock of 'air."

"Bless my heart, do they?" cried the lady.

"Yes, ana yours is so beautiful thick! Let
me cut off a bit. There, don't be shy, ma'am,"
said Gertrude, playfully.

"Well, here, hunderneath, wheer it ain't so
grey," said Mrs. Turnover, hitching up her cap.

An iron-grey tuft being presently secured
and tied—to avoid dangerous contrasts—with
white thread.

"Now, listen," said the lady in the chair;
"here's the letter."  She had made some improvements
in the spelling, but retained the
sense intact:

"'Honoured Sir. Being as you wished an
immediate answer to your handsome proposal
made to your humble servant, Barbara Ann
Turnover, which, if you really think it's for
your happiness, why, you knows best. Took by
surprise, in my apron and all, I might have
seemed more cooler than circumstances required;
but, for the future, you shan't have no
call to complain. Yours to command,
"' BARBARA ANN TURNOVER.'

"Well," concluded Mrs. Mapes, "will it
do?"

"I don't like 'honoured sir,'" said Mrs.
Turnover, returning to her former criticism.
"It reads cold, and besides, ma'am, he didn't
ask for an immediate answer, nor I never said
he did."

"Very good, my dear. I cut that out," said
Mrs. Mapes.

"Now she needn't put her name theer, since
'tis signed at the end," remarked Dolly.

"That's out," said Mrs. Mapes.

"Now, ain't this rayther queer; if you railly
thinks it's for your happiness, ansetterer,'"
said Gertrude. "0' course it's for his happiness,
and o' course he know'd it so to be. 'If'
sounds hunbelieving."

"Truly, ma'am," said Mrs. Turnover.

"That's out," said the lady with the pen.

"Mrs. Turnover, ma'am," said the laundrymaid,
humbly, "I ask for information. Don't
it seem as if 'took by surprise' meant to reproge
him?"

"Good gracious, child! Reproach! Not
for any sake!" exclaimed the lady, much disturbed.
"Out with it, please, ma'am, quick!"

"It's out," replied the president. " Now
about 'the future' ?'"

"If I were Mrs. Turnover, little enough I'd
promige about that" said Dolly, darkly. "Fust
you see how he beyaves hisself."

"Perhaps you're right, child," said the cook.
"The very last hordible words poor Tur——"

"There, that's out," interrupted Mrs. Mapes,
and she laid down the pen.

"Go on, if you please, 'm," said Mrs. Turnover.

"That's all."

"Why, bless me! what's gone of the letter?'*
ejaculated Mrs. Turnover, looking at the
document in some dismay.

"There's nothing left but 'yours to command,'
the name, and the hair," said Mrs.
Mapes.

There was a subdued giggle in the assembly
at this unexpected result of their labours, but
Mrs. Mapes, who was becoming sleepy, comforted
them with the assurance that nothing in
the world could be better than what still remained.
The hair, and the "yours to command,"
at once announced that the offer was
accepted, and that Mrs. Turnover purposed to
be a dutiful spouse.

This appearing satisfactory, thanks were presented
to Mrs. Mapes for her "able conduct in
the chair," and the council separated to their
respective apartments, leaving Gosling Graize
under the guardianship of the ever-wakeful
ancestors, who frowned and smirked below.

Now ready, in One Volume, post Svo,
AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE.
London: CHAPMAN and HALL, 193, Piccadilly