hope
your governess is not within hearing, Miss Eve; it is not her fault;
she was born a French woman, and we would not wish to hurt her
feelings--but what a different picture France presents! I have
watched her narrowly too, these forty years, I may say, and I have
never yet found her right; and this, you must allow, is a great deal
to be said by one who is thoroughly impartial."

"This is a terrible picture, indeed, Howel, to come from an
unprejudiced man," said John Effingham; "and I make no doubt Sir
George Templemore will have a better opinion of himself for ever
after--he for a valiant lion, and you for a true prince. But yonder
is the 'exclusive extra,' which contains our party."

The elevated bit of lawn on which they were walking commanded a view
of the road that led into the village, and the travelling, vehicle
engaged by Mrs. Hawker and her friends, was now seen moving along it
at a rapid pace. Eve expressed her satisfaction, and then all resumed
their walk, as some minutes must still elapse previously to the
arrival.

"Exclusive extra!" repeated Sir George; "that is a peculiar phrase,
and one that denotes any thing but democracy."

"In any other part of the world a thing would be sufficiently marked,
by being 'extra,' but here it requires the addition of 'exclusive,'
in order to give it the 'tower stamp,'" said John Effingham, with a
curl of his handsome lip. "Any thing may be as exclusive as it
please, provided it bear the public impress. A stagecoach being
intended for every body, why, the more exclusive it is, the better.
The next thing we shall hear of will be exclusive steamboats,
exclusive railroads, and both for the uses of the exclusive people."

Sir George now seriously asked an explanation of the meaning of the
term, when Mr. Howel informed him that an 'extra' in America meant a
supernumerary coach, to carry any excess of the ordinary number of
passengers; whereas an 'exclusive extra' meant a coach expressly
engaged by a particular individual.

"The latter, then, is American posting," observed Sir George.

"You have got the best idea of it that can be given," said Paul. "It
is virtually posting with a coachman, instead of postillions, few
persons in this country, where so much of the greater distances is
done by steam, using their own travelling carriages. The American
'exclusive extra' is not only posting, but, in many of the older
parts of the country, it is posting of a very good qualit