and had always ended them with
the assertion that she wouldn't pay duty either! Just what she meant to
do she did not know, but she went with her husband to the field of
combat, and was soon hotly engaged with three officers, who, seeing her
nervousness and hearing her excited voice, scented mischief, of course,
and notwithstanding that she declared she was Mrs. Rossiter-Browne, of
Ridgeville, a church member in good standing, and asked if they thought
she would do a thing she believed was wrong, they answered that her idea
of wrong and theirs might not agree, and they went to the bottom of her
largest trunk, and found the silk dress she had bought for her friend,
Mrs. Boughton, who had told her "to get one _worth_ four dollars a yard,
but not to give over two, and on no account pay duty."

"I trust to your Yankee wit to get it through," Mrs. Boughton had
written, citing several instances where similar things had been done and
no lies told either!

And it was this particular dress at the very bottom of her trunk for
which Mrs. Browne felt the most anxiety. But the remorseless officers
found it, and found a plush table-spread she had bought in Paris and a
cushion to match, and, as they held them up, they facetiously asked her
to what church she belonged.

She told them none of their business, and as her principles and patience
were both at a low ebb by this time, and the meaning of rendering to
Caesar the things which were Caesar's did not seem at all clear to her,
she whispered fiercely to her husband:

"Ike, you fool, why don't you fee 'em? I can't have 'em riddlen' all
them tother trunks, with my seal-skin, and Gusty's fur-lined cloak, and
Allen's new overcoat, and that clock and mosaic table. Fee 'em high,
too, and do it quick! there's that wretch now liftin' out a tray!"

To those who have witnessed similar scenes it is needless to say that by
some magic the search was stopped, and neither Mrs. Browne's seal-skin,
nor Augusta's fur-lined cloak, nor Allen's overcoat were molested, and
the ten trunks were chalked and deposited in the express wagons, and the
Rossiter-Brownes, with Lord Hardy and Daisy, were driven to the Windsor.

Meantime Daisy had cried a good deal, and leaned her head against
Augusta and once against Lord Hardy's arm, and sobbed:

"Oh, Teddy, you knew my Archie, and know just how good and patient he
was, and how lonely I shall be without him. Oh, what shall I do?"

Teddy did not suggest anyt