ing.

'Mrs. Brisbane shall take orders from no lady but Miss Fulmort, while she
is in my house,' thundered Mervyn.

Phoebe, in agony, began to say she knew not what to Sir Bevil, and he
seconded her with equal vehemence and incoherency, till by the time they
knew what they were talking of, they were with much interest discussing
his little daughter, scarcely turning their heads from one another, till,
in the midst of dessert, the voice of Juliana was heard,--'Sir Bevil, Sir
Bevil, if you can spare me any attention--What was the name of that
person at Hampstead that your sister told me of?'

'That person! What, where poor Anne Acton was boarded? Dr. Graham, he
called himself, but I don't believe he was a physician. Horrid vulgar
fellow!'

'Excellent for the purpose, though,' continued Lady Acton, addressing
herself as before to Mr. Crabbe; 'advertises for nervous or deficient
ladies, and boards them on very fair terms: would take her quite off our
hands.'

Phoebe turned a wild look of imploring interrogation on Sir Bevil, but a
certain family telegraph had electrified him, and his eyes were on the
grapes that he was eating with nervous haste. Her blood boiling at what
she apprehended, Phoebe could endure her present post no longer, and
starting up, made the signal for leaving the dinner-table so suddenly
that Augusta choked upon her glass of wine, and carried off her last
macaroon in her hand. Before she had recovered breath to rebuke her
sister's precipitation, Phoebe, with boldness and spirit quite new to the
sisters, was confronting Juliana, and demanding what she had been saying
about Hampstead.

'Only,' said Juliana, coolly, 'that I have found a capital place there
for Maria--a Dr. Graham, who boards and lodges such unfortunates. Sir
Bevil had an idiot cousin there who died. I shall write to-morrow.'

'I promised that Maria should not be separated from me,' said Phoebe.

'Nonsense, my dear,' said Augusta; 'we could not receive her; she can
never be made presentable.'

'You?' said Phoebe.

'Yes, my dear; did you not know? You go home with us the day after
to-morrow; and next spring I mean to bring you out, and take you
everywhere. The Admiral is so generous!'

'But the others?' said Phoebe.

'I don't mind undertaking Bertha,' said Lady Acton. 'I know of a good
school for her, and I shall deposit Maria at Dr. Graham's as soon as I
can get an answer.'

'Really,' continued Augusta, 'Phoebe wil