an nature. She listened to the Vicar's "argument" with
edification, and hunted up his authorities with diligence. She scoured
young madam's lutestring, and made it up in the latest and most elegant
fashion of nightgowns, with fringes and buttons, such as our own little
girls could match. She made hay with Prissy and Fiddy, and not only
accomplished a finer cock than weak Fiddy and impatient Priss, but
surpassed the regular haymakers. And she looked, oh! so well in her
haymaker's jacket and straw hat--though young madam was always saying
that her shape was too large for the dress, and that the slight hollows
in her cheeks were exaggerated by the shade from the broad-brimmed
flapping straw.

Of course Mistress Betty performed in the "Traveller" and "Cross
Purposes," and gave out riddles and sang songs round the hearth of a
rainy evening, or about the cherrywood table in the arbour, of a
cloudless twilight, much more pat than other people--that was to be
looked for; but then she also played at love after supper, loo and
cribbage for a penny the game--deeds in which she could have no original
superiority and supremacy--with quite as infectious an enthusiasm.

To let you into a secret, young madam was in horror at one time that
Dick Ashbridge was wavering in his allegiance to her white rosebud,
Fiddy; so enthralling was this scarlet pomegranate, this purple vine.
But one evening Mrs. Betty turned suddenly upon the mad boy, to whom she
had been very soft, saying that he bore a great resemblance to her
cousin's second son Jack, and asked how old he was? and did he not think
of taking another turn at college? This restored the boy to his senses
in a trice, and she kissed Mistress Fiddy twice over when she bade her
good night.

But old madam and Lady Betty were the chief pair of friends. Granny,
with her own sway in her day, and her own delicate discrimination, acute
intellect, and quick feelings, was a great enough woman not to be
jealous of a younger queen, but to enjoy her exceedingly. Madam Parnell
had seen the great world as well as Lady Betty, and never tired of
reviving old recollections, comparing experiences, and tracing the fates
of the children and grandchildren of the great men and women her
contemporaries. Prissy and Fiddy vowed over and over again, that the
stirring details were more entertaining than any story-book. For this
reason, Granny took a personal pride in Lady Betty's simplest feat, as
well as in her i