r she encountered Mrs. Green, and smiled sweetly as
she wished that lady all the compliments of the season.

"We shall see you immediately after church," said Mrs. Mason.

"Oh yes, certainly," said Mrs. Green.

"And Mr. Green with you?"

"He intends to do himself the pleasure," said the curate's wife.

"Mind he comes, because we have a little ceremony to go through
before we sit down to dinner," and Mrs. Mason smiled again ever
so graciously. Did she think, or did she not think, that she was
going to do a kindness to her neighbour? Most women would have sunk
into their shoes as the hour grew nigh at which they were to show
themselves guilty of so much meanness.

She stayed for the sacrament, and it may here be remarked that on
that afternoon she rated both the footman and housemaid because they
omitted to do so. She thought, we must presume, that she was doing
her duty, and must imagine her to have been ignorant that she was
cheating her husband and cheating her friend. She took the sacrament
with admirable propriety of demeanour, and then, on her return home,
withdrew another chair from the set. There would still be six,
including the rocking chair, and six would be quite enough for that
little hole of a room.

There was a large chamber up stairs at Groby Park which had been used
for the children's lessons, but which now was generally deserted.
There was in it an old worn-out pianoforte,--and though Mrs. Mason
had talked somewhat grandly of the use of her drawing-room, it was
here that the singing had been taught. Into this room the metallic
furniture had been brought, and up to that Christmas morning it had
remained here packed in its original boxes. Hither immediately after
breakfast Mrs. Mason had taken herself, and had spent an hour in her
efforts to set the things forth to view. Two of the chairs she then
put aside into a cupboard, and a third she added to her private store
on her return to her work after church.

But, alas, alas! let her do what she would, she could not get the top
on to the table. "It's all smashed, ma'am," said the girl whom she
at last summoned to her aid. "Nonsense, you simpleton; how can it be
smashed when it's new," said the mistress. And then she tried again,
and again, declaring as she did do, that she would have the law of
the rogue who had sold her a damaged article. Nevertheless she had
known that it was damaged, and had bought it cheap on that account,
insisting in very urge