unt, and the retinue of family servants who had
grown old in her service. It was a ghastly life for a young woman still
several years under thirty, it would have been considered so at least by
most young women, but Grizel stoutly refused to be pitied. The old
"Buddy" was alone. The old Buddy needed her; the old Buddy found
pleasure and refreshment in her society,--why then should she not have
what she wanted?

"S'pose _you_ were an old Buddy of eighty-nine, and nobody wouldn't
come, how would _you_ like it, d'you suppose?" she would enquire with
her usual disregard of grammar, circumlocution, and other conventions
practised by the polite, and her hearers mentally substituting "Grizel"
for "nobody," invariably decided that they wouldn't like it at all.

"How's the old Buddy?" enquired Katrine, when, the preliminary
preparations over, she found a chance to begin tea on her own account.
She took not the faintest interest in the venerable dame, who for the
last ten years had refused to see any one beyond the members of her own
family, but it seemed the proper thing to make the enquiry and get it
over before proceeding to more interesting subjects. "The same as
usual, I suppose!"

Grizel held a morsel of cake extended in her hand; frowned at it
sternly, and shook her head.

"Failing!" she said solemnly. "Failing rapidly; sometimes quite lucid,
but, generally speaking, dotty! Dotty, my dear, as the veriest March
hare. Hallucinations. Delusions. Went in to see her last night in a
new rig, and she took me for the Queen of Sheba. Chatted quite calmly
for a moment, then blushed and started wriggling, trying to do obeisance
from her wheeled chair. Said she hadn't caught the name, and hoped I
would forgive!"

"Poor old Buddy! Awkward for you both. And what did you do next?"

"Oh, I Shebaed, of course," laughed Grizel lightly. "Bit embarrassing,
y'know, because James was Solomon, and she made compromising remarks.
Humorous! if you think of it--Solomon in whiskers and greasy black! I
could have wished it had been John. John is a shapely young thing, and
devoted to me. We had quite a rollicky evening. I made offerings of
tea caddies and chimney-piece ornaments, and she kissed my hand. Poor
old Buddy! She had quite a bean feast."

Grizel's deep voice could take on occasion a note of beautiful
tenderness; it sounded now at the mention of the old mad aunt, and her
listeners noting it, marvelled afresh. Lady G