ring with her cane.

The pedlar, who was by no means pleased with this outrage against his
cur, now interfered.

"Don't lick my dorrg, ma'am, in that ere sort o' fashun. What harm can
that hanimal ha' done to you, or that whiskered cat-like thing o'
yourn?"

"Hold your impertinent tongue, fellow! or I'll thrash you, too," cried
Miss Wilhelmina, flourishing aloft her cane.

The man eyed her sullenly. "Maybe, you'd beest not try. If you warn't a
'uman I'd give it to 'un."

"A lady, sir," with great dignity, and drawing herself up to her full
height.

"Ladies don't act in that ere way. You be but a 'uman, and a mad yun,
too; that be what you be's."

The next moment Lyndsay expected the cane to descend upon the pedlar's
head, and was ready to rush to the rescue of the fair Wilhelmina. But
no; the lady dropped her cane, burst into a loud fit of laughter,
stooped down, patted the offended cur, and, slipping a shilling into the
hand of the angry countryman, snatched Muff to her capacious bosom, and
walked off at full trot.

The pedlar, looking after her for a minute, with his eyes and mouth wide
open in blank astonishment, and then down at the silver glittering in
his hand, cried out,--

"I knows you bees a lady now. If you delights in licking o' do'rrgs,
ma'am, you ma' thrash Bull as much as you please for sixpence a licking.
That's fair, I thinks."

He might as well have shouted to the winds; Miss Wilhelmina was out of
hearing, and Flora and her husband pursued their walk to the hall.

CHAPTER VIII.

MISS WILHELMINA CALLS UPON FLORA.

The breakfast things were scarcely removed the following morning, when
Miss Carr walked into the room, where Flora was employed at her
work-table, in manufacturing some small articles of dress.

"Your husband is afraid of me, Mrs. Lyndsay: he started off the moment
he saw me coming up to the door. I don't want to banish him from his own
house."

"Oh, not at all. He has business in town, Miss Carr. You have favoured
me with a very early visit."

"Too early? Just speak the truth plainly out. Why the deuce do people
tell so many stories, when it would be far easier to speak the truth? I
assure you, that you look so neat and comfortable in your morning
costume, that you have no reason to be ashamed. I like to come upon
people unawares,--to see them as they really are. You are welcome to
come and see me in my night-cap, when the spirit moves me. When I'm not
out walkin