thought she should like a cup of tea. (Am I
responsible for any of these vulgar fluctuations, which begin with
unhappiness and end with tea?) Just as she was WARMING THE POT (I give
the words on the authority of Louis, who says he knows what they mean,
and wishes to explain, but I snub him on principle)--just as she was
warming the pot the door opened, and she was STRUCK OF A HEAP (her own
words again, and perfectly unintelligible this time to Louis, as well
as to myself) by the appearance in the inn parlour of her ladyship the
Countess. I give my niece's maid's description of my sister's title
with a sense of the highest relish. My poor dear sister is a tiresome
woman who married a foreigner. To resume: the door opened, her
ladyship the Countess appeared in the parlour, and the Young Person was
struck of a heap. Most remarkable!

I must really rest a little before I can get on any farther. When I
have reclined for a few minutes, with my eyes closed, and when Louis
has refreshed my poor aching temples with a little eau-de-Cologne, I
may be able to proceed.

Her ladyship the Countess----

No. I am able to proceed, but not to sit up. I will recline and
dictate. Louis has a horrid accent, but he knows the language, and can
write. How very convenient!

Her ladyship, the Countess, explained her unexpected appearance at the
inn by telling Fanny that she had come to bring one or two little
messages which Miss Halcombe in her hurry had forgotten. The Young
Person thereupon waited anxiously to hear what the messages were, but
the Countess seemed disinclined to mention them (so like my sister's
tiresome way!) until Fanny had had her tea. Her ladyship was
surprisingly kind and thoughtful about it (extremely unlike my sister),
and said, "I am sure, my poor girl, you must want your tea. We can let
the messages wait till afterwards. Come, come, if nothing else will
put you at your ease, I'll make the tea and have a cup with you." I
think those were the words, as reported excitably, in my presence, by
the Young Person. At any rate, the Countess insisted on making the
tea, and carried her ridiculous ostentation of humility so far as to
take one cup herself, and to insist on the girl's taking the other.
The girl drank the tea, and according to her own account, solemnised
the extraordinary occasion five minutes afterwards by fainting dead
away for the first time in her life. Here again I use her own words.
Louis th