! am I to be confined to one? What but spiritual solaces could
assist me to live, after the degradations I have had heaped on me? I
renounce the world. I turn my sight to realms where caste is unknown. I
feel no shame there of being a tailor's daughter. You see, I can bring my
tongue to name the thing in its actuality. Once, that member would have
blistered. Confess to me that, in spite of your children, you are tempted
to howl at the idea of Lymport--'

The Countess paused, and like a lady about to fire off a gun, appeared to
tighten her nerves, crying out rapidly:

'Shop! Shears! Geese! Cabbage! Snip! Nine to a man!'

Even as the silence after explosions of cannon, that which reigned in the
room was deep and dreadful.

'See,' the Countess continued, 'you are horrified you shudder. I name all
our titles, and if I wish to be red in my cheeks, I must rouge. It is, in
verity, as if my senseless clay were pelted, as we heard of Evan at his
first Lymport boys' school. You remember when he told us the story? He
lisped a trifle then. "I'm the thon of a thnip." Oh! it was hell-fire to
us, then; but now, what do I feel? Why, I avowed it to Herbert Duffian
openly, and he said, that the misfortune of dear Papa's birth did not the
less enable him to proclaim himself in conduct a nobleman's offspring--'

'Which he never was.' Harriet broke the rhapsody in a monotonous low
tone: the Countess was not compelled to hear:

'--and that a large outfitter--one of the very largest, was in reality a
merchant, whose daughters have often wedded nobles of the land, and
become ancestresses! Now, Harriet, do you see what a truly religious mind
can do for us in the way of comfort? Oh! I bow in gratitude to Herbert
Duffian. I will not rest till I have led him back to our fold, recovered
from his error. He was our own preacher and pastor. He quitted us from
conviction. He shall return to us from conviction.'

The Countess quoted texts, which I respect, and will not repeat. She
descanted further on spiritualism, and on the balm that it was to tailors
and their offspring; to all outcasts from Society.

Overpowered by her, Harriet thus summed up her opinions: 'You were always
self-willed, Louisa.'

'Say, full of sacrifice, if you would be just,' added the Countess; 'and
the victim of basest ingratitude.'

'Well, you are in a dangerous path, Louisa.'

Harriet had the last word, which usually the Countess was not disposed to
accord; but now s