on; in that brazen-faced house which looks out of the Paragon
right down Montpellier Avenue as regards the front windows, and from
the back fully commands the entrance to the railway station. This
was Mrs. O'Neil's house; and, as Mrs. O'Neil herself loudly boasted
when Miss Todd came to inspect the premises, she rarely took single
ladies, or any ladies that had not handles to their names. Her
very last lodger had been Lady McGuffern, the widow of the medical
director of the great Indian Eyesore district, as Mrs. O'Neil called
it. And Lady McGuffern had paid her, oh! ever so much per week; and
had always said on every Saturday--"Mrs. O'Neil, your terms for such
rooms as these are much too low." It is in such language that the
widows of Scotch doctors generally speak of their lodgings when they
are paying their weekly bills.

And these rooms Miss Todd had secured. She had, moreover, instantly
sent for Mr. Wutsanbeans, who keeps those remarkably neat livery
stables at the back of the Paragon, and in ten minutes had concluded
her bargain for a private brougham and private coachman in
demi-livery at so much per week. "And very wide awake she is, is
Miss Todd," said the admiring Mr. Wutsanbeans, as he stood among
his bandy-legged satellites. And then her name was down at the
assembly-rooms, and in the pump-room, and the book-room, and in
the best of sittings in Mr. O'Callaghan's fashionable church, in
almost less than no time. There were scores of ladies desirous of
being promoted from the side walls to the middle avenues in Mr.
O'Callaghan's church; for, after all, what is the use of a French
bonnet when stuck under a side wall? But though all these were
desirous, and desirous in vain, Miss Todd at once secured a place
where her head was the cynosure of all the eyes of the congregation.
Such was Miss Todd's power, and therefore do we call her great.

And in a week's time the sound of her loud but yet pleasant voice,
and the step of her heavy but yet active foot, and the glow of her
red cherry cheek were as well known on the esplanade as though she
were a Littlebathian of two months' standing. Of course she had
found friends there, such friends as one always does find at such
places--dear delightful people whom she had met some years before
for a week at Ems, or sat opposite to once at the hotel table at
Harrowgate for a fortnight. Miss Todd had a very large circle of such
friends; and, to do her justice, we must say that s