mute rebellion.

"Lady Hester wishes to see Miss Dalton," said a servant at the outer
door.

"Can you permit me for a moment?" asked Kate, in a tremor.

"Oh, of course, my dear Miss Dalton; let there be no ceremony with us,"
said Martha. "Your kindness makes us feel like old friends already."

"I feel-myself quite at home," cried Scroope, whose head was not proof
against so much wine; and then, turning to one of the servants, he added
a mild request for the two bottles that were left on the drawing-room
table.

Martha happily, however, overheard and revoked the order. And now the
various attendants withdrew, leaving the family to themselves.

It was ill no pleasant mood that Kate took her way towards Lady Hester's
apartment. The drawing-room, as she passed through it, still exhibited
some of the signs of its recent ruin, and the servants were busied
in collecting fragments of porcelain and flower-pots. Their murmured
comments, hushed as she went by, told her how the occurrence was already
the gossip of the household. It was impossible for her not to connect
herself with the whole misfortune. "But for her" But she could not
endure the thought, and it was with deep humiliation and trembling in
every limb that she entered Lady Hester's chamber.

"Leave me, Celadon; I want to speak to Miss Dalton," said Lady Hester
to the hairdresser, who had just completed one half of her Ladyship's
chevelure, leaving the other side pinned and rolled up in those various
preparatory stages which have more of promise than picturesque about
them. Her cheek was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with an animation
that betrayed more passion than pleasure.

"What is this dreadful story I 've heard, child, and that the house is
full of? Is it possible there can be any truth in it? Have these odious
people actually dared to establish themselves here? Tell me, child
speak!"

"Mrs. Ricketts became suddenly ill," said Kate, trembling; "her dog
threw down a china jar."

"Not my Sevres jar? not the large green one, with the figures?"

"I grieve to say it was!"

"Go on. What then?" said Lady Hester, dryly.

"Shocked at the incident, and alarmed, besides, by the fall of a
flower-stand, she fainted away, and subsequently was seized with what
I supposed to be a convulsive attack, but to which her friends seemed
perfectly accustomed, and pronounced not dangerous. In this dilemma they
asked me if they might occupy my room. Of course I could not