is commanded by the Lord High Commissioner and the
Marchioness of Heatherdale to invite Miss Hamilton to a Garden Party at
the Palace of Holyrood House, on the 27th of May. WEATHER PERMITTING.'

'The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland admits Miss
Hamilton to any gallery on any day.'

'The Marchioness of Heatherdale is At Home on the 26th of May from a
quarter-past nine in the evening. Palace of Holyrood House.'

'The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland is
At Home in the Library of the New College on Saturday, the 22nd of May,
from eight to ten in the evening.'

'The Moderator asks the pleasure of Miss Hamilton's presence at a
Breakfast to be given on the morning of the 25th May at Dunedin Hotel.'

We determined to go to all these functions impartially, tracking thus
the Presbyterian lion to his very lair, and observing his home as well
as his company manners. In everything that related to the distinctively
religious side of the proceedings we sought advice from Mrs. M'Collop,
while we went to Lady Baird for definite information on secular matters.
We also found an unexpected ally in the person of our own ex-Moderator's
niece, Miss Jean Dalziel (Deeyell). She has been educated in Paris,
but she must always have been a delightfully breezy person, quite too
irrepressible to be affected by Scottish haar or theology. "Go to the
Assemblies, by all means," she said, "and be sure and get places for the
heresy case. These are no longer what they once were,--we are getting
lamentably weak and gelatinous in our beliefs,--but there is an
unusually nice one this year; the heretic is very young and handsome,
and quite wicked, as ministers go. Don't fail to be presented at the
Marchioness's court at Holyrood, for it is a capital preparation for the
ordeal of Her Majesty and Buckingham Palace. 'Nothing fit to wear'?
You have never seen the people who go or you wouldn't say that! I even
advise you to attend one of the breakfasts; it can't do you any serious
or permanent injury so long as you eat something before you go. Oh no,
it doesn't matter,--whichever one you choose, you will cheerfully omit
the other; for I avow, as a Scottish spinster, and the niece of an
ex-Moderator, that to a stranger and a foreigner the breakfasts are
worse than Arctic explorations. If you do not chance to be at the table
of honour--"

"The gifted Miss Hamilton is always at the table of honour; unless she
is pla