the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us--'

'Mamma's beloved Burn's Justice again,' interrupted Rupert.

'No, no, we do not mean to let our mouths be stopped,' said Lady
Merton; 'such a challenge must be answered.'

'Shew him no mercy, Anne,' said Sir Edward; 'he likes pepper.'

'Pray, Rupert,' said Anne, 'what would you have been without
self-control, if, possessing such a quantity of it, you still allowed
so much spirit of mischief to domineer over you, that you frightened
Dora out of her wits about Winifred, and tormented Helen all the way to
Whistlefar, and worst of all, that you could not help writing that
wicked poem, and then pretending that it was mine; why, it was an
outrage upon us all, it would have been bad enough if the name had
belonged to no one, but when you knew that he was a real man--'

'And that Miss Hazleby wrote his name on purpose that something of the
kind might be done,' said Rupert; 'I gratified her beyond measure, and
then was so kind and disinterested as to give you the credit of it, if
you would have accepted it. You may be sure that she will shew the
poem to her hero, and tell him what a charming fellow that young Rupert
Merton is.'

'Now just listen, Mamma,' said Anne; 'I begged of Mr. Rupert not to
write anything about Fido in the Conglomeration on Saturday evening;
and because I did so, he would write nothing on his own account, but
pretending to read my verses, he brings out a horrible composition
about a certain Mr. Francis Hollis, who, Miss Hazelby had been telling
us, had been the means of her going to an officers' ball, at Hull, and
whom she had danced with--'

'Capital, capital!' cried Rupert; 'I never heard all this; I did not
know how good my poem was, I knew the truth by intuition.'

'But having heard this made it all the worse for me,' said Anne; 'and
Mamma, this dreadful doggerel--'

'Anne, I declare--' cried Rupert.

'And, Mamma, this dreadful doggerel,' proceeded Anne, 'proposed to send
Fido's heart to this Mr. Hollis, and so put him in raptures with a gift
from Miss Hazleby, and fill his mind with visions of a surrogate, and a
wedding tour to Harrogate. Now was it not the most impertinent
ungentlemanlike thing you ever heard of?'

'How can you talk such nonsense, Anne?' said Rupert; 'do you think I
should have written it, if I had not known it would please her?'

'I believe you would not have dared to behave in such a manner to
Lizzi