y lad," he said, "why do you stand gazing about you thus? Come,
and sit down to your breakfast."

"You bade me stand before you, father, therefore I did so," said the
son, now approaching the table and assuming a seat beside his cousin
Alice.

There were a few moments of silence, during which all were occupied with
their meal. At length Esq. Camford inquired, casually enough, "Jack,
what young lady was that I saw you with in the French market this
morning?"

Jack, at the moment helping Alice to a snipe, answered carelessly,
"Young lady? O, Miss Winnie Morris, sister of Wayland Morris, editor of
our Literary Gazette."

Alice suddenly dropped her bird on the cloth, and Esq. Camford sprang
from the table, and, seizing his hat, bolted from the apartment,
overturning two servants in his way, and exclaiming at the top of his
voice, "Thunder and Mars! Thunder and Mars!"

Jack burst into a hearty laugh as his father cleared the door, and said,
"Was there ever a theatre could equal our house for enacting scenes?
Why, Alice, where are you going?" he continued, observing her rise from
the table; "stay a moment; will you be disengaged when I come in to
dinner? I want a few moments' private conversation with you."

"I shall be at your service, cousin," she answered, closing the door
behind her.

"What have you to say to Alice?" inquired Miss Celestina, the "belle and
beauty," in a querulous tone; picking at a bunch of flowers that laid
beside Josephine's plate.

"O, please don't spoil my flowers, sister!" said Miss Pheny; "they were
sent to me this morning by a particular friend."

"Faugh! what particular friend have _you_ got, I wonder?" sneered the
beauty; "some foolish love affair afoot here, to rival Jack's, I
suppose. Ha, ha! what silly things children are! But come, bubby, tell
me what you want with Alice?"

"That's my business," returned the youth proudly.

"To talk about your sweetheart, no doubt, and solicit her sympathy in
your love troubles. You'll find father won't have you toting about with
this beggar girl, I can tell you!" said the fair Celestina, spitefully.

"She is not a beggar," retorted Jack with flashing eyes, "but a far more
beautiful and accomplished lady than many who have had the best
advantages of fashionable society."

"O, of course, she is all perfection in your eyes at present," returned
the beauty in an aggravating tone, as she rose to retire; "but this day
six months I wonder how she w