s to proceeding with the torture (or was wont to do so, in the
good old times for which all true men wear perpetual mourning), did Mrs
Chick administer the smelling-bottle, the slapping on the hands, the
dashing of cold water on the face, and the other proved remedies. And
when, at length, Miss Tox opened her eyes, and gradually became restored
to animation and consciousness, Mrs Chick drew off as from a criminal,
and reversing the precedent of the murdered king of Denmark, regarded
her more in anger than In sorrow.'

'Lucretia!' said Mrs Chick 'I will not attempt to disguise what I feel.
My eyes are opened, all at once. I wouldn't have believed this, if a
Saint had told it to me.

'I am foolish to give way to faintness,' Miss Tox faltered. 'I shall be
better presently.'

'You will be better presently, Lucretia!' repeated Mrs Chick, with
exceeding scorn. 'Do you suppose I am blind? Do you imagine I am in my
second childhood? No, Lucretia! I am obliged to you!'

Miss Tox directed an imploring, helpless kind of look towards her
friend, and put her handkerchief before her face.

'If anyone had told me this yesterday,' said Mrs Chick, with majesty,
'or even half-an-hour ago, I should have been tempted, I almost believe,
to strike them to the earth. Lucretia Tox, my eyes are opened to you all
at once. The scales:' here Mrs Chick cast down an imaginary pair, such
as are commonly used in grocers' shops: 'have fallen from my sight. The
blindness of my confidence is past, Lucretia. It has been abused and
played, upon, and evasion is quite out of the question now, I assure
you.

'Oh! to what do you allude so cruelly, my love?' asked Miss Tox, through
her tears.

'Lucretia,' said Mrs Chick, 'ask your own heart. I must entreat you not
to address me by any such familiar term as you have just used, if you
please. I have some self-respect left, though you may think otherwise.'

'Oh, Louisa!' cried Miss Tox. 'How can you speak to me like that?'

'How can I speak to you like that?' retorted Mrs Chick, who, in default
of having any particular argument to sustain herself upon, relied
principally on such repetitions for her most withering effects. 'Like
that! You may well say like that, indeed!'

Miss Tox sobbed pitifully.

'The idea!' said Mrs Chick, 'of your having basked at my brother's
fireside, like a serpent, and wound yourself, through me, almost into
his confidence, Lucretia, that you might, in secret, entertain design