ar, than our Griselda? When the thing
loomed so large, lady patronesses began to be aware that mere
nobodies would hardly be fit for the work. There would have been
little or no difficulty in carrying out a law that nobody should
take a part in the business who had not some handle to her name, but
it was felt that such an arrangement as that might lead to failure
rather than glory. The commoner world must be represented but it
should be represented only by ladies who had made great names for
themselves. Mrs Conway Sparkes, the spiteful poetess, though she was
old and ugly as well as spiteful, was to have a stall and a bevy,
because there was thought to be no doubt about her poetry. Mrs
Chaucer Munro had a stall and a bevy; but I cannot clearly tell her
claim to distinction, unless it was that she had all but lost her
character four times, but had so saved it on each of those occasions
that she was just not put into the Index Expurgatorius of fashionable
society in London. It was generally said by those young men who
discussed the subject, that among Mrs Chaucer Munro's bevy would
be found the most lucrative fascination of the day. And then Mrs
Mackenzie was asked to take a stall, or part of a stall, and to bring
Griselda with her as her assistant. By this time the Lamb was most
generally known as "Griselda" among fashionable people.

Now Mrs Mackenzie was herself a woman of fashion, and quite open to
the distinction of having a part assigned to her at the great bazaar
of the season. She did not at all object to a booth on the left hand
of the Duchess of St Bungay, although it was just opposite to Mrs
Chaucer Munro. She assented at once.

"But you must positively bring Griselda," said Lady Glencora
Palliser, by whom the business of this mission was conducted.

"Of course, I understand that," said Mrs Mackenzie. "But what if she
won't come?"

"Griseldas are made to do anything," said Lady Glencora, "and of
course she must come."

Having settled the difficulty in this way, Lady Glencora went her
way, and Mrs Mackenzie did not allow Griselda to go to her rest that
night till she had extracted from her a promise of acquiescence,
which, I think, never would have been given had Miss Mackenzie
understood anything of the circumstances under which her presence was
desired.

But the promise was given, and Margaret knew little or nothing of
what was expected from her till there came up, about a fortnight
before the day of