ou would not say," observed Mr Parmenter, without indicating to
whom he addressed himself, "that this cause, now--ha--of which we were
speaking,--that the lives, I mean--ha--were sacrificed to any particular
person?"

"I never saw one plainer, if you mean me," said my Aunt Kezia, bluntly.
"What do nine-tenths of the men care about monarchy or commonwealth--
absolute kings or limited ones--Stuart or Hanoverian? They just care
for Prince Charles, and his fine person and ringing voice, and his
handsome dress: what else? And the women are worse than the men. Some
men will give their lives for a cause, but you don't often see a woman
do it. Mostly, with women, it is father or brother, lover or husband,
that carries the day: at least, if you have seen women of another sort,
they haven't come my way."

"But, Aunt, that is so ignoble a way of acting!" cried Amelia, as though
she wanted to show that she was one of the other sort. "Love and
devotion to a holy or chivalrous cause should be free from all petty
personal considerations."

"You can get yours free, my dear, if you like--and find you can manage
it," said my Aunt Kezia. "I couldn't. As to ignoble, that hangs much
on the person. When Queen Margaret of Scotland was drowning in yonder
border river, and the good knight rode into the water and held forth his
hand to her, and said, `Grip fast!' was that a petty, ignoble
consideration? It was a purely personal matter."

"Oh, of course, if you--" said Amelia, and did not go on.

"Things look very different, sometimes, according to the side on which
you see them," saith my Aunt Kezia.

I could not help thinking that people did so.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. Emily was used during the last century as a diminutive for
Amelia. There is really no etymological connection between the two
names.

Note 2. In and about London, the name of jumbles is given to a common
kind of gingerbread, to be obtained at the small sweet-shops: but these
are not the old English jumball of the text.

Note 3. There was no Queen at this time. Augusta of Saxe Gotha was
Princess of Wales, and the King had three grown-up unmarried daughters.

Note 4. This provincialism is correct for Lancashire, and as far as I
know for Cumberland.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE HUNT-SUPPER.

"Alas! what haste they make to be undone!"

GEORGE HERBERT.

Before he went away, Ephraim came up i