enue. It was that of
a man slightly past middle age, yet erect and jaunty, whose costume
recalled the early water-color portraits of her own youthful days. His
tightly buttoned blue frock coat with gilt buttons was opened far enough
across the chest to allow the expanding of a frilled shirt, black stock,
and nankeen waistcoat, and his immaculate white trousers were smartly
strapped over his smart varnished boots. A white bell-crowned hat,
carried in his hand to permit the wiping of his forehead with a silk
handkerchief, and a gold-headed walking stick hooked over his arm,
completed this singular equipment. He was followed, a few paces in the
rear, by a negro carrying an enormous bouquet, and a number of small
boxes and parcels tied up with ribbons. As the figure paused before the
door, Miss Tish gasped, and cast a quick restraining glance around the
classroom. But it was too late; a dozen pairs of blue, black, round,
inquiring, or mischievous eyes were already dancing and gloating over
the bizarre stranger through the window.

"A cirkiss--or nigger minstrels--sure as you're born!" said Mary Frost,
aged nine, in a fierce whisper.

"No!--a agent from 'The Emporium,' with samples," returned Miss Briggs,
aged fourteen.

"Young ladies, attend to your studies," said Miss Tish, as the servant
brought in a card. Miss Tish glanced at it with some nervousness, and
read to herself, "Colonel Culpeper Starbottle," engraved in script, and
below it in pencil, "To see Miss Pansy Stannard, under favor of Miss
Tish." Rising with some perturbation, Miss Tish hurriedly intrusted
the class to an assistant, and descended to the reception room. She had
never seen Pansy's guardian before (the executor had brought the child);
and this extraordinary creature, whose visit she could not deny, might
be ruinous to school discipline. It was therefore with an extra degree
of frigidity of demeanor that she threw open the door of the reception
room, and entered majestically. But to her utter astonishment, the
colonel met her with a bow so stately, so ceremonious, and so commanding
that she stopped, disarmed and speechless.

"I need not ask if I am addressing Miss Tish," said the colonel loftily,
"for without having the pleasure of--er--previous acquaintance, I can
at once recognize the--er--Lady Superior and--er--chatelaine of
this--er--establishment." Miss Tish here gave way to a slight cough and
an embarrassed curtsy, as the colonel, with a wave o