d
intelligent light, and after a few rounds I am sure none of us could ever
again have forgotten those elusive figures relative to the distances and
proportions of the planets. However, that must be for another time. For
today I thought it would be a pleasure as well as a benefit to us all to
learn something about a gifted and noble person who, I am surprised to
find, is not so well known in Joppa as she should be, and whom, I am
convinced, we should all be infinitely the better and happier for
knowing. I have, therefore, persuaded Mr. Webb, with whose powers as a
reader long years of acquaintanceship have so pleasantly familiarized us,
to read to us this afternoon extracts from the 'Life and Letters of the
Baroness Bunsen.'"

"Good Lord!" ejaculated Dick beneath his breath, "who's that?"

"Hush," whispered Jake. "I've got a novel of Miss Braddon's in my
pocket. I thought it might come in handy. That'll help us through till
feed time."

"You are all familiar with the name, of course," pursued Mrs. Upjohn,
smiling graciously around the dismayed circle of her guests. "The book
has been in the library this long time past, and observing with regret
that only its first fifty pages had been cut, I caught at this invaluable
opportunity to make you further acquainted with it."

Mr. Webb now came forward, a thick, green-bound volume in his hand, and a
look on his face as if he were about to open the proceedings with a
prayer, but Mrs. Upjohn held up her hand.

"One moment, please, before we begin. We ladies are so unaccustomed to
sitting with idle hands, even when listening to so absorbing a theme as
the virtues of this truly excellent Christian wife and mother, that I
thought it would be a kindness to ourselves to provide some simple work
which should occupy our fingers and at the same time be in itself a
worthy object of industry. Maria, my dear."

The silence in the room was appalling; one could almost hear the shiver
of apprehension running down the silk-and muslin-clad backs. The sign was
given, however, by the docile Maria, and immediately two enormous baskets
were brought in: one, the smaller, containing every possible implement
for unlimited sewing by unlimited hands; the other, of alarming
dimensions, filled to overflowing with shapeless and questionable
garments of a canton-flannel coarse, so yellow, so indestructible, so
altogether unwearable and hideous, that had it been branded "charity" in
flaming letters, i