ement.

"I wouldn't hurry for her," said Dolly; "but of course you'll hurry.
You always do, don't you, papa?" Then they sat down to dinner.

"Well, girls, what is your news?"

"We were out to-day on the Brompton Road," said the eldest, "and there
came up Prince Chitakov's drag with four roans."

"Prince Chitakov! I didn't know there was such a prince."

"Oh, dear, yes; with very stiff mustaches, turned up high at the
corners, and pink cheeks, and a very sharp, nobby-looking hat, with a
light-colored grey coat, and light gloves. You must know the prince."

"Upon my word, I never heard of him, my dear. What did the prince do?"

"He was tooling his own drag, and he had a lady with him on the box. I
never saw anything more tasty than her dress,--dark red silk, with little
fluffy fur ornaments all over it. I wonder who she was?"

"Mrs. Chitakov, probably," said the attorney.

"I don't think the prince is a married man," said Sophy.

"They never are, for the most part," said Amelia; "and she wouldn't be
Mrs. Chitakov, Uncle John."

"Wouldn't she, now? What would she be? Can either of you tell me what
the wife of a Prince of Chitakov would call herself?"

"Princess of Chitakov, of course," said Sophy. "It's the Princess of
Wales."

"But it isn't the Princess of Christian, nor yet the Princess of Teck,
nor the Princess of England. I don't see why the lady shouldn't be Mrs.
Chitakov, if there is such a lady."

"Papa, don't bamboozle her," said his daughter.

"But," continued the attorney, "why shouldn't the lady have been his
wife? Don't married ladies wear little fluffy fur ornaments?"

"I wish, John, you wouldn't talk to the girls in that strain," said
their mother. "It really isn't becoming."

"To suggest that the lady was the gentleman's wife?"

"But I was going to say," continued Amelia, "that as the prince drove by
he kissed his hand--he did, indeed. And Sophy and I were walking along
as demurely as possible. I never was so knocked of a heap in all my
life."

"He did," said Sophy. "It's the most impertinent thing I ever heard. If
my father had seen it he'd have had the prince off the box of the coach
in no time."

"Then, my dear," said the attorney, "I am very glad that your father
did not see it." Poor Dolly, during this conversation about the prince,
sat angry and silent, thinking to herself in despair of what extremes of
vulgarity even a first cousin of her own could be guilty. That she
should