ssage appeared Cook's
crimsoned face. Martin rushed down the staircase, followed by an
exclaiming Marie, and all three stared petrified at the sight before
them.

Parsons and Edwards had followed Grizel's lead, and were now flanking
her on each side, pressing their hands to their hearts, and gasping for
breath. All three were white from head to foot, and on the floor around
them the carpet was whitened to match.

"For mercy's sake, Grizel, _what_ has happened?" cried Martin loudly.
Then, lifting his eyes, he glanced through the open door of the
dining-room, and beheld...

Where had stretched a smooth expanse of white, there were now unsightly
gaps showing glimpses of dust and timber: where the lines of the cornice
had neatly bordered the room, was now a rough and jagged edge. The
ceiling had fallen, gently, unostentatiously, without fuss or clamour,
and deposited itself upon the floor!

At that moment the door bell rang.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

AMONG THE BULBS.

By noon next day all Chumley was ringing with the story of Grizel
Beverley's first dinner party, for each feminine guest, anxious to have
the privilege of telling the news, had hurried out of the house at the
first possible moment, and betaken herself to the High Street.

"My dear! you never knew anything so awful.--I never enjoyed anything so
much in my life," said Miss Hunter, the doctor's sister, to her dearest
friend, and, linking arms, proceeded to give a detailed account of the
night's adventure. How being herself the first to arrive at the house,
the door had opened to reveal the tableau of the dishevelled mistress
and maids, standing at the end of the hall, like figures of snow, and
through an open door a vista of the dining-room, with a table heaped
high with plaster. A gruesome spectacle it had been; the gleam of glass
and silver serving but to accentuate the general ruin.

For the first moment Mrs Beverley had gaped at her guests as if not
realising the meaning of their presence; then suddenly she had begun to
laugh, to peal with laughter, and to explain the nature of the sudden
catastrophe. Then Miss Hunter and her brother had said that of course
they would return home, and she had stamped her foot, and said--nothing
of the kind! the dinner was cooked,--and pray, who was to eat the
dinner? They were to stay; everyone was to stay; she would arrange
everything in a twinkling! It would be first-rate fun.

And it _was_ fun! At a word