box painted in fond imitation of the drawings
which decorate tea-chests. Carlo lay on the
worsted-work rug, and ungraciously barked
at us as we entered. Mrs. Jamieson stood
up, giving us each a torpid smile of welcome,
and looking helplessly beyond us at Mr.
Mulliner, as if she hoped he would place us
in chairs, for if he did not, she never could.
I suppose he thought we could find our way
to the circle round the fire, which reminded
me of Stonehenge, I don't know why. Lady
Glenmire came to the rescue of our hostess;
and somehow or other we found ourselves for
the first time placed agreeably, and not formally,
in Mrs. Jamieson's house. Lady Glenmire,
now we had time to look at her, proved
to be a bright little woman of middle age,
who had been very pretty in the days of her
youth, and who was even yet very pleasant-
looking. I saw Miss Pole appraising her
dress in the first five minutes; and I take her
word, when she said the next day,

"My dear! ten pounds would have
purchased every stitch she had on—lace and
all."

It was pleasant to suspect that a peeress
could be poor, and partly reconciled us to the
fact that her husband had never sat in the
House of Lords; which, when we first heard
of it, seemed a kind of swindling us out of
our respect on false pretences; a sort of " A
Lord and No Lord " business.

We were all very silent at first. We were
thinking what we could talk about, that
should be high enough to interest My Lady.
There had been a rise in the price of sugar,
which, as preserving-time was near, was a
piece of intelligence to all our housekeeping
hearts, and would have been the natural topic
if Lady Glenmire had not been by. But we
were not sure if the Peerage ate preserves—
much less knew how they were made. At
last, Miss Pole, who had always a great deal
of courage and savoir faire, spoke to Lady
Glenmire, who on her part had seemed just
as much puzzled to know how to break the
silence as we were.

"Has your ladyship been to Court, lately?"
asked she; and then gave a little glance
round at us, half timid, and half triumphant,
us much as to say, " See how judiciously I
have chosen a subject befitting the rank of
the stranger!''

"I never was there in my life," said Lady
Glenmire, with a broad Scotch accent, but in
a very sweet voice. And then, as if she had
been too abrupt, she added, " We very seldom
went to London; only twice, in fact, during
all my married life; and before I was married,
my father had far too large a family "—(fifth
daughter of Mr. Campbell, was in all our
minds, I am sure)—" to take us often from
our home, even to Edinburgh. Ye 'll have
been in Edinburgh, may be? " said she,
suddenly brightening up with the hope of
a common interest. We had none of us
been there; but Miss Pole had an uncle who
once had passed a night there, which was
very pleasant.

Mrs. Jamieson, meanwhile, was absorbed in
wonder why Mr. Mulliner did not bring the
tea; and, at length, the wonder oozed out of
her mouth.

" I had better ring the bell, my dear, had
not I? said Lady Glenmire, briskly.

"No—I think not—Mulliner does not
like to be hurried." We should have liked
our tea, for we dined at an earlier hour than
Mrs. Jamieson. I suspect Mr. Mulliner had
to finish the St. James's Chronicle before he
chose to trouble himself about tea. His
mistress fidgetted and fidgetted, and kept
saying, " I can't think why Mulliner does not
bring tea. I can't think what he can be
about." And Lady Glenmire at last grew
quite impatient, but it was a pretty kind of
impatience after all; and she rung the bell
rather sharply, on receiving a half permission
from her sister-in-law to do so. Mr. Mulliner
appeared in dignified surprise. " Oh! " said
Mrs. Jamieson, " Lady Glenmire rang the
bell; I believe it was for tea."

In a few minutes tea was brought. Very
delicate was the china, very old the plate,
very thin the bread-and-butter, and very small
the lumps of sugar. Sugar was evidently
Mrs. Jamieson's favourite economy. I question
if the little filigree sugar-tongs, made
something like scissors, could have opened
themselves wide enough to take up an honest,
vulgar, good-sized piece; and when, I tried to
take two little minikin pieces at once, so
as not to be detected in too many returns to
the sugar-basin, they absolutely dropped one,
with a little sharp clatter, quite in a malicious
and unnatural manner. But before this
happened, we had had a slight disappointment.
In the little silver jug was cream, in
the larger one was milk. As soon as Mr.
Mulliner came in, Carlo began to beg, which
was a thing our manners forbade us to do,
though I am sure we were just as hungry;
and Mrs. Jamieson said she was certain we
would excuse her if she gave her poor dumb
Carlo his tea first. She accordingly mixed a
saucer-full for him, and put it down for him
to lap; and then she told us how intelligent
and sensible the dear little fellow was; he
knew cream quite well, and constantly refused
tea with only milk in it: so the milk was left
for us, but we silently thought we were quite
as intelligent and sensible as Carlo, and felt
as if insult were added to injury, when we
were called upon to admire the gratitude
evinced by his wagging his tail for the cream,
which should have been ours.

After tea we thawed down into common-
life subjects. We were thankful to Lady
Glenmire for having proposed some more
bread-and-butter, and this mutual want made
us better acquainted with her than we should
ever have been with talking about the Court,
though Miss Pole did say, she had hoped to
know how the dear Queen was from some one