in the sociable
twilight that had descended on the afternoon tea-table, sat three
ladies--for Lady Adela and Miss Morton had just welcomed Mrs. Bury, who,
though she had her headquarters in London, generally spent her time in
visits to her married daughters or expeditions abroad.

Amice had just exhibited her doll, Elmira's last acquisition, a little
chest of drawers, made of matchboxes and buttons, that Constance Morton
had taught her to make, and then she had gone off to put the said Elmira
and her companions to bed, after giving it as her grave opinion that Lady
Northmoor was a great acquisition.

'Do you think so?' said Mrs. Bury, after the laugh at the sedate
expression.

'She is very kind to Amice, and I do not think she will do her any harm,'
said Lady Adela.

'Governessing was her _metier_,' added Bertha, 'so it is not likely.'

'And how does it turn out?'

'Oh, it might be a good deal worse. I see no reason for not living on
here.'

'And you, Birdie?'

'No, I _couldn't_! I've been burning to get away these seven years, and
as Northmoor actually seems capable of taking my boys, my last tie is
gone. I'm only afraid he'll bore them with too much Sabbatarianism and
temperance. He is just the cut of the model Sabbath-school teacher, only
he vexes Addie's soul by dashes of the Ritualist.'

'Well,' said Mrs. Bury, 'the excellent Mr. Woodman is capable of
improvement.'

'But how?' said Lady Adela. 'Narrow ritualism without knowledge or
principle is a thing to be deprecated.'

'Is it without knowledge or principle?'

'How should an attorney's clerk get either?'

'But I understand you that they are worthy people, and not obnoxious.'

'Worthy!' exclaimed Bertha. 'Yes, worthy to their stiff backbones,
worthy to the point of utter dulness; they haven't got enough vulgarity
even to drop their h's or be any way entertaining. I should like them
ever so much better if they ate with their knives and drank out of their
saucers, but she can't even mispronounce a French word worse than most
English people.'

'No pretension even?'

'Oh no; if there were, one could get some fun out of it. I have heard of
bearing honours meekly, but they don't even do that, they just let them
hang on them, like the stick and stock they are. If I were Addie, it
would be the deadly liveliness that would drive me away.'

'Nay,' said Adela; 'one grows to be content with mere negations, if they
are nothing worse. I _could_