ada saw
that the wine was a good vintage, and bought it and had it bottled in
his own presence while you were asleep in the Emperor's room in the fine
old Burgundy city, and swore that, whatever came to them both, his son
should drink the wine of princes on the day of his majority.' Here my
father's tone was highly exalted, and he sat in a great flush.

I promised him I would bend my steps toward Dipwell to be there on my
twenty-first birthday, and he pledged himself to be there in spirit at
least, bodily if possible. We sealed the subject with some tears.
He often talked of commissioning a poet to compose verses about that
wonderful coming day at Dipwell. The thought of the day in store for
us sent me strutting as though I had been in the presence of my
drill-master. Mrs. Waddy, however, grew extremely melancholy at the
mention of it.

'Lord only knows where we shall all be by that time!' she sighed.

'She is a dewy woman,' said my father, disdainfully They appeared always
to be at variance, notwithstanding her absolute devotion to him. My
father threatened to have her married to somebody immediately if she
afflicted him with what he called her Waddyism. She had got the habit
of exclaiming at the end of her remarks, 'No matter; our clock strikes
soon!' in a way that communicated to me an obscure idea of a door
going to open unexpectedly in one of the walls, and conduct us, by
subterranean passages, into a new country. My father's method of
rebuking her anxious nature was to summon his cook, the funniest of
Frenchmen, Monsieur Alphonse, and issue orders for a succession of six
dinner-parties. 'And now, ma'am, you have occupation for your mind,' he
would say.

To judge by the instantaneous composure of her whole appearance, he did
produce a temporary abatement of her malady. The good soul bustled out
of the room in attendance upon M. Alphonse, and never complained while
the dinners lasted, but it was whispered that she had fits in the upper
part of the house. No sooner did my father hear the rumour than he
accused her to her face of this enormity, telling her that he was
determined to effect a permanent cure, even though she should drive him
to unlimited expense. We had a Ball party and an Aladdin supper, and for
a fortnight my father hired postillions; we flashed through London. My
father backed a horse to run in the races on Epsom Downs named Prince
Royal, only for the reason that his name was Prince Royal, and the