toilet-tables and looking-glasses like the most
accomplished housemaid; while, reclining in her easy-chair, the fair Zoe
vouchsafed praises on all the efforts around her, and nodded, as Jove
might, on mortal endeavors to conciliate him.

Poor Nelly was in ecstasy at all this goodness; such a united family was
a perfect picture. Nothing seemed to inconvenience them,--nothing went
wrong. There was a delightfully playful spirit in the way they met and
conquered little difficulties, and whenever hard pushed by fate there
was a wonderful reticule of Mrs. Ricketts's which was sure to contain
something to extricate them at once. Since Aladdin's lamp, there never
was such a magical contrivance as that bag; and the Wizard of the North,
who makes pancakes in a gentleman's hat and restores it unstained, and
who, from the narrow limits of a snuff-box, takes out feathers enough
to stuff a pillow-case, would have paled before the less surprising but
more practical resources of the "Rickettses' sack."

Various articles of toilet necessity, from objects peculiar to the
lady's own, down to the General's razors, made their appearance. An
impertinent curiosity might have asked why a lady going to dine at a
public ordinary should have carried about with her such an array
of flannel jackets, cordials, lotions, slippers, hair-brashes, and
nightcaps; but it is more than likely that Mrs. Ricketts would have
smiled at the short-sighted simplicity of the questioner, as she
certainly did at poor Nelly's face of quiet astonishment.

It was a downright pleasure to make sacrifices for people so ready to
accommodate themselves to circumstances, and who seemed to possess a
physical pliancy not inferior to the mental one. The General wanted
no window to shave at. Martha could bestow herself within limits that
seemed impossible to humanity. As for Scroope, he was what French
dramatists call a "grand utility,"--now climbing up ladders to arrange
curtain-rods, now descending to the cellars in search of unknown and
nameless requisites. A shrewd observer might have wondered that such
extensive changes in the economy of a household were effected for the
sake of one night's accommodation; but this thought neither occurred to
Dalton nor his daughter, who were, indeed, too full of admiration for
their guests' ingenuity and readiness, to think of anything else.

As for honest Peter, a house full of company was his delight. As he took
his place that evening a