be sitting at table with a girl who could boast that a reprobate
foreigner had kissed his hand to her from the box of a fashionable
four-horsed coach! For it was in that light that Miss Grey regarded it.
"And did you have any farther adventures besides this memorable
encounter with the prince?"

"Nothing nearly so interesting," said Sophy.

"That was hardly to be expected," said the attorney. "Jane, you will
have a glass of port-wine? Girls, you must have a glass of port-wine to
support you after your disappointment with the prince."

"We were not disappointed in the least," said Amelia.

"Pray, pray, let the subject drop," said Dolly.

"That is because the prince did not kiss his hand to you," said Sophy.
Then Miss Grey sunk again into silence, crushed beneath this last blow.

In the evening, when the dinner-things had been taken away, a matter of
business came up, and took the place of the prince and his mustaches.
Mrs. Carroll was most anxious to know whether her brother could "lend"
her a small sum of twenty pounds. It came out in conversation that the
small sum was needed to satisfy some imperious demand made upon Mr.
Carroll by a tailor. "He must have clothes, you know," said the poor
woman, wailing. "He doesn't have many, but he must have some." There had
been other appeals on the same subject made not very long since, and, to
tell the truth, Mr. Grey did require to have the subject argued, in fear
of the subsequent remarks which would be made to him afterward by his
daughter if he gave the money too easily. The loan had to be arranged in
full conclave, as otherwise Mrs. Carroll would have found it difficult
to obtain access to her brother's ear. But the one auditor whom she
feared was her niece. On the present occasion Miss Grey simply took up
her book to show that the subject was one which had no interest for her;
but she did undoubtedly listen to all that was said on the subject.
"There was never anything settled about poor Patrick's clothes," said
Mrs. Carroll, in a half-whisper. She did not care how much her own
children heard, and she knew how vain it was to attempt so to speak that
Dolly should not hear.

"I dare say something ought to be done at some time," said Mr. Grey, who
knew that he would be told, when the evening was over, that he would
give away all his substance to that man if he were asked.

"Papa has not had a new pair of trousers this year," said Sophy.

"Except those green ones he w