like a miniature figure moved by the unseen hand of the showman.
"Allow me, sir!" And she gravely tendered him a huge snuff-box of
tortoise shell, which he declined; whereupon she continued:

"You do not use it? New fashions; new habits! Though whether for the
better is not for me to say."

She helped herself to a liberal portion and passed the box to the
portly old gentleman. Here the landlord, in a surly tone, told the
stable boy to remove the gentleman's things and show the ladies to
their rooms. Before going, the girl in the provoking hood--now
unfastened, and freeing sundry rebellious brown curls where the
moisture yet sparkled like dew--turned to the old man:

"You are coming up directly? Your stock wants changing, while your
ruffles"--laughing--"are disgraceful!"

"Presently, my dear; presently!" he returned.

The members of the company mounted the broad stairway, save the driver
of the coach--he of the disordered ruffles--who wiped his heavy boots
on a door mat and made his way to the fire, where he stood in English
fashion with his coat-tails under his arms, rubbing his hands and
drying himself before the flames.

"A disagreeable time of year, sir," he observed to the soldier, who
had returned to his seat before the table. "Twice on the road we
nearly broke down, and once the wagon dumped our properties in the
ditch. Meanwhile, to make matters worse, the ladies heaped reproaches
upon these gray hairs. This, sir, to the man who was considered one of
the best whips in old Devonshire county."

The other did not answer immediately, but regarded the speaker with
the look of one not readily disposed to make acquaintances. His
conclusions were apparently satisfactory, however, for he presently
vouchsafed the remark:

"You are the manager, I presume?"

"I enjoy that honor," returned the loquacious stranger. "But my duties
are manifold. As driver of the chariot, I endure the constant
apprehension of wrecking my company by the wayside. As assistant
carpenter, when we can not find a stage it is my task to erect one. As
bill-poster and license-procurer, treasurer and stage manager, my time
is not so taken up, sir, as to preclude my going on and assuming a
character."

"A life of variety," observed the young man, politely if indifferently.

"Yes; full of ups and downs, as the driver of the property wagon said
when we entered this hilly district," replied the manager, with the
contentment of a man who has found