his wife on all points, and which the lady herself had
the effrontery to boast "would have settled all accounts." Not a word
of truth in any of these stories probably; but still, such is the
character the world's good nature affixes to that dark handsome woman
at whom Cousin John seems so very much alarmed.

Then there was an elderly Miss Minnows, who was horribly afraid of
catching cold, but in whose character I could perceive no other very
salient point; and a fair-haired young gentleman, whose name I did not
distinctly catch, and who looked as if he ought to have been at
school, where, indeed, I think he would have been much happier; and
sundry regular stereotyped London men and women, well bred and well
dressed, and cool and composed, and altogether thoroughly respectable
and stupid; and a famous author, who drank a great deal of wine, and
never opened his lips to speak; and I think that was all--no,
by-the-bye, there was Captain Lovell, who came very late, and we went
soberly into Richmond Park, and dined under a tree.

I do not think I quite like a picnic. It is all very well, like most
other arrangements, if everything goes right; but I sat between Sir Guy
Scapegrace and the light-haired young gentleman, and although I could
hear lots of fun going on at the other end of the tablecloth, where
Cousin John and Mary Molasses and Captain Lovell had got together, I
was too far off to partake of it, and my _vis-a-vis_, Lady Scapegrace,
scowled at me so from under her black eyebrows, though I believe
utterly unconsciously, that she made me feel quite nervous. Then it was
not reassuring to have that odious Sir Guy pressing me to eat
everything, and looking right under my bonnet, and asking me to drink
champagne at least four times; and if I turned to my other neighbour,
and ventured to address him on the most commonplace subject, he blushed
so painfully that I began to think he was quite as much afraid of me as
I was of Sir Guy. Altogether I was rather glad when the things were
cleared away and put back into the hampers, and the gentlemen asked
leave to light their cigars, and we broke up our circle, and lounged
about and enjoyed ourselves in the shade of those fine trees on that
dry velvet sward. We were rather put to it though for amusement, and
had to propose games of forfeits and other pastimes; and Cousin John,
quite unwittingly, got me into a sad scrape by boasting about his
horses. "Not such another pair out of Lo