h you had some right feeling and some
conversation. You are as dull as ditch water. You care for nothing.
I don't believe it would rouse you to hear that the plague was in
the next street!"

"Well, we shall see," answered Gertrude, with a calmness that was
at least a little provoking, "for people say it is spreading very
fast, and may soon be here."

"What!" cried Madam, in a sudden panic; "who says that? What do you
mean, girl?"

"It was Reuben who told me," answered Gertrude, with a little blush
which she tried to conceal by turning her face towards the window.

But her ruse was in vain. Madam's hawk eye had caught the rising
colour, and her brow contracted sharply.

"Reuben! what Reuben? Have I not told you a hundred times that I
would have none of that sort of talk any more? Reuben, indeed! as
though you were boy and girl together! Pray tell me this, you
forward minx, does he dare to address you as Gertrude when he has
the insolence to speak to you in the streets, where alone I presume
he can do so?"

Gertrude's face was burning with indignation. She had to clasp her
hands tightly together to restrain the hot words which rose to her
lips.

"We have been children together--and friends," she said, "the
Harmers and I. How should we forget that so quickly--even though
you have forgotten! My father does not mind."

Madam's face was as red as her daughter's. She was about to make
some violent retort, when the sound of a footstep on the stairs
checked the words upon her lips.

"There is Frederick!" she said.

CHAPTER II. LONDON'S YOUNG CITIZENS.

The door of the room where mother and daughter sat was flung wide
open with scant ceremony, and to the accompaniment of a boisterous
laugh. Into the room swaggered a tall, fine-looking young man of
some three-and-twenty summers, dressed in all the extravagance of a
lavish and extravagant age. Upon his head he wore an immense peruke
of ringlets, such as had been introduced at Court the previous
year, and which was almost universal now with the nobles and
gentry, but by no means so amongst the citizens. The periwig was
surmounted by a high-crowned hat adorned with feathers and ribbons,
and ribbons floated from his person in such abundance that to
unaccustomed eyes the effect was little short of grotesque. Even
the absurd high-heeled shoes were tied with immense bows of ribbon,
whilst knees, wrists, throat, and even elbows displayed their bows
and streamers. Th