where to place herself. She had never been on a platform before, and it
seemed as though the crowd of people below was looking specially at
her. As she sat down, at the right hand of the Baroness, who was of
course at the right hand of the Chairwoman, the bald-headed gentleman
introduced her to her other neighbour, Miss Doctor Olivia Q. Fleabody,
from Vermont. There was so much of the name and it all sounded so
strange to the ears of Lady George that she could remember very little
of it, but she was conscious that her new acquaintance was a miss and a
doctor. She looked timidly round, and saw what would have been a pretty
face, had it not been marred by a pinched look of studious severity and
a pair of glass spectacles of which the glasses shone in a disagreeable
manner. There are spectacles which are so much more spectacles than
other spectacles that they make the beholder feel that there is before
him a pair of spectacles carrying a face, rather than a face carrying a
pair of spectacles. So it was with the spectacles of Olivia Q.
Fleabody. She was very thin, and the jacket and collars were quite
successful. Sitting in the front row she displayed her feet,--and it
may also be said her trousers, for the tunic which she wore came down
hardly below the knees. Lady George's enquiring mind instantly began to
ask itself what the lady had done with her petticoats. "This is a great
occasion," said Dr. Fleabody, speaking almost out loud, and with a very
strong nasal twang.

Lady George looked at the chair before she answered, feeling that she
would not dare to speak a word if Aunt Ju were already on her legs; but
Aunt Ju was taking advantage of the commotion which was still going on
among those who were looking for seats to get her breath, and therefore
she could whisper a reply. "I suppose it is," she said.

"If it were not that I have wedded myself in a peculiar manner to the
prophylactick and therapeutick sciences, I would certainly now put my
foot down firmly in the cause of architecture. I hope to have an
opportunity of saying a few words on the subject myself before this
interesting session shall have closed." Lady George looked at her again
and thought that this enthusiastic hybrid who was addressing her could
not be more than twenty-four years old.

But Aunt Ju was soon on her legs. It did not seem to Lady George that
Aunt Ju enjoyed the moment now that it was come. She looked hot, and
puffed once or twice before she