; don't be so nervous, girl!" cried Mrs Rose.

Matty, in her anxiety not to drop the match, at once dropped it into the
waste-paper basket, which was instantly alight. A stamp of the foot
might have extinguished it, but this did not occur to either of the
domestics. The housekeeper, who was a courageous woman, seized the
basket in both hands and rushed with it to the fireplace, thereby
fanning the flame into a blaze and endangering her dress and curls. She
succeeded, however, in cramming the basket and its contents into the
grate; then the two, with the aid of poker, tongs, and shovel, crushed
and beat out the fire.

"There! I said you'd do it," gasped Mrs Rose, as she flung herself,
panting, into Mr Auberly's easy-chair; "this comes of bein' in a
hurry."

"I was always unfort'nit," sighed Matty, still holding the shovel and
keeping her eye on the grate, as if ready to make a furious attack on
the smallest spark that should venture to show itself.

"Come, now, we'll go to bed," said Mrs Rose, rising, "but first look
well round to see that all is safe."

A thorough and most careful investigation was made of the basket, the
grate, and the carpet surrounding the fireplace, but nothing beyond the
smell of the burnt papers could be discovered, so the instructor and
pupil put out the gas, shut the door, and retired to the servants'-hall,
where Hopkins, the cook, the housemaid, and a small maid-of-all-work
awaited their arrival--supper being already on the table.

Here Mrs Rose entertained the company with a graphic--not to say
exaggerated--account of the "small fire" in the study, and wound up with
an eloquent appeal to all to "beware of fire," and an assurance that
there was nothing on the face of the whole earth that she had a greater
horror of.

Meanwhile the "little spark" among the papers--forgotten in the
excitement of the succeeding blaze of the waste-paper basket--continued
to do its slow but certain work. Having fallen on the cloth between two
bundles, it smouldered until it reached a cotton pen-wiper, which
received it rather greedily in its embrace. This pen-wiper lay in
contact with some old letters which were dry and tindery in their
nature, and, being piled closely together in a heap, afforded enlarged
accommodation, for the "spark," which in about half an hour became quite
worthy of being termed a "swell."

After that things went on like--"like a house on fire"--if we may
venture to use that too