laring that his royal highness had done it out of his own
head; and others were sure that the whole business had originated
with a certain philanthropical Mr Manfred Smith who had lately come
up in the world, and was supposed to have a great deal to do with
most things. Be that as it may, this thing did grow and become
great, and there was a list of lady patronesses which included some
duchesses, one marchioness, and half the countesses in London. It was
soon manifest to the eyes of those who understood such things, that
the Negro Soldiers' Orphan Bazaar was to be a success, and therefore
there was no difficulty whatsoever in putting the custody of the
stalls into the hands of proper persons. The difficulty consisted in
rejecting offers from persons who undoubtedly were quite proper for
such an occasion. There came to be interest made for permission to
serve, and boastings were heard of unparalleled success in the bazaar
line. The Duchess of St Bungay had a happy bevy of young ladies who
were to act as counter attendants under her grace; and who so happy
as any young lady who could get herself put upon the duchess's staff?
It was even rumoured that a certain very distinguished person would
have shown herself behind a stall, had not a certain other more
distinguished person expressed an objection; and while the rumour
was afloat as to the junior of those two distinguished persons, the
young-ladydom of London was frantic in its eagerness to officiate.
Now at that time there had become attached to the name of our poor
Griselda a romance with which the west-end of London had become
wonderfully well acquainted. The story of the Lion and the Lamb was
very popular. Mr Maguire may be said to have made himself odious
to the fashionable world at large, and the fate of poor Margaret
Mackenzie with her lost fortune, and the additional misfortune of her
clerical pledged protector, had recommended itself as being truly
interesting to all the feeling hearts of the season. Before May was
over, gentlemen were enticed to dinner parties by being told--and
untruly told--that the Lamb had been "secured;" as on the previous
year they had been enticed by a singular assurance as to Bishop
Colenso; and when Margaret on one occasion allowed herself to be
taken to Covent Garden Theatre, every face from the stalls was turned
towards her between the acts.

Who then was more fit to take a stall, or part of a stall at the
Negro Soldiers' Orphan Baza