tayed in Vienna all the
winter. I advertised him in the papers. I had placards, offering a large
reward for his discovery, pasted on the walls of the principal streets;
but I failed in recovering my poor Adolphe. To console myself for his
loss, I painted that portrait of him from memory. 'Tis an admirable
likeness. No one who had ever seen the original, could mistake it for
another. It was just a week after I lost my child, that the mistress of
the house, in compassion for my distress, presented me with my
incomparable Muff. Fortune owed me a good turn, for the ill-natured
trick she had played me. It would not have been difficult for me to have
found another red-headed boy, as amiable as Adolphe; but such a prize as
Muff is only to be met with once in a life."

"And the parents of the poor child,--how did they bear his loss?"

"To tell you the truth, my dear, I never knew. I never wish to know;
for, without Adolphe, I never mean to venture into their neighbourhood
again."

"Let us hope," said Flora, "that the child found his way back to his
native mountains."

"Hurra!" cried Miss Wilhelmina, starting from her seat, and giving Flora
such a hearty embrace that she nearly choked her. "I never thought of
that possibility before. Yes--yes; he had money in his little purse. I
have no doubt that, on missing me, he returned by the road we had
travelled to his native place. That demon won't haunt my dreams again.
But here comes the coffee, and Miss Turner's delicious cakes and
home-made bread and butter. I hope you are fond of coffee, my dear? I
detest tea;--it is a sort of nervous, maudlin, sick-chamber trash, only
fit for old maids and milk-and-water matrons."

"I prefer coffee," said Flora. "I have quite an Asiatic taste in that
respect."

"Don't talk of Asiatic coffee," said Wilhelmina: "wait till you have
tasted it. The nauseous stuff! I have drank enough of it at
Constantinople, but never could get it down without a grimace. I have it
made in the French style."

The coffee and cakes were served on a small silver tray, which was
placed on the table between them. The coffee was fragrant and
exhilarating; the bread and butter and cakes richly deserved the praise
Miss Wilhelmina had bestowed upon them. Flora had dined early, and did
justice to them.

"I like to see a person enjoy their meals," said Miss Carr. "I hate
affectation in eating, as much as I hate affectation in speech. Some
mince with their food as if the