as if it was yesterday, and old Dr. Ball, the prebendary, with the
carbuncles on his nose, saw it too."

"Dr. Ball had no carbuncles on his nose," said Mrs. MacHugh. "You'll
say next that I have carbuncles on my nose."

"He had three. I remember each of them quite well, and so does Sir
Peter."

Then everybody laughed; and Martha, who was in the room, knew that
Brooke Burgess was a complete success.

In the meantime Mr. Gibson was talking to Dorothy; but Dorothy was
endeavouring to listen to the conversation at the other end of the
table. "I found it very dirty on the roads to-day outside the city,"
said Mr. Gibson.

"Very dirty," said Dorothy, looking round at Mr. Burgess as she
spoke.

"But the pavement in the High Street was dry enough."

"Quite dry," said Dorothy. Then there came a peal of laughter from
Mrs. MacHugh and Sir Peter, and Dorothy wondered whether anybody
before had ever made those two steady old people laugh after that
fashion.

"I should so like to get a drive with you up to the top of Haldon
Hill," said Mr. Gibson. "When the weather gets fine, that is. Mrs.
Powel was talking about it."

"It would be very nice," said Dorothy.

"You have never seen the view from Haldon Hill yet?" asked Mr.
Gibson. But to this question Dorothy could make no answer. Miss
Stanbury had lifted one of the table-spoons, as though she was going
to strike Mr. Brooke Burgess with the bowl of it. And this during
a dinner party! From that moment Dorothy turned herself round, and
became one of the listeners to the fun at the other end of the table.
Poor Mr. Gibson soon found himself "nowhere."

"I never saw a man so much altered in my life," said Mrs. MacHugh, up
in the drawing-room. "I don't remember that he used to be clever."

"He was a bright boy," said Miss Stanbury.

"But the Burgesses all used to be such serious, strait-laced people,"
said Mrs. MacHugh. "Excellent people," she added, remembering the
source of her friend's wealth; "but none of them like that."

"I call him a very handsome man," said Mrs. Powel. "I suppose he's
not married yet?"

"Oh, dear, no," said Miss Stanbury. "There's time enough for him
yet."

"He'll find plenty here to set their caps at him," said Mrs. MacHugh.

"He's a little old for my girls," said Mrs. Powel, laughing. Mrs.
Powel was the happy mother of four daughters, of whom the eldest was
only twelve.

"There are others who are more forward," said Mrs. MacHugh. "What a
cha