on on his part almost
confounded her. The other ladies knew that he always did so to a
newcomer, and therefore thought less of it. No other gentleman took
any other lady, but she was led up to a special seat,--a seat of
honour as it were, at the left hand side of a huge silver kettle.
Immediately before the kettle sat Mrs Stumfold. Immediately before
another kettle, at another table, sat Miss Peters, a sister of Mrs
Stumfold's. The back drawing-room in which they were congregated
was larger than the other, and opened behind into a pretty garden.
Mr Stumfold's lines in falling thus among the Peters, had fallen
to him in pleasant places. On the other side of Miss Mackenzie sat
Miss Baker, and on the other side of Mrs Stumfold stood Mr Startup,
talking aloud and administering the full tea-cups with a conscious
grace. Mr Stumfold and Mr Frigidy were at the other table, and Mr
Maguire was occupied in passing promiscuously from one to the other.
Miss Mackenzie wished with all her heart that he would seat himself
somewhere with his face turned away from her, for she found it
impossible to avert her eyes from his eye. But he was always
there, before her sight, and she began to feel that he was an evil
spirit,--her evil spirit, and that he would be too many for her.

Before anybody else was allowed to begin, Mrs Stumfold rose from her
chair with a large and completely filled bowl of tea, with a plate
also laden with buttered toast, and with her own hands and on her own
legs carried these delicacies round to her papa. On such an occasion
as this no servant, no friend, no Mr Startup, was allowed to
interfere with her filial piety.

"She does it always," said an admiring lady in an audible whisper
from the other side of Miss Baker. "She does it always."

The admiring lady was the wife of a retired coachbuilder, who was
painfully anxious to make her way into good evangelical society at
Littlebath.

"Perhaps you will put in the sugar for yourself," said Mrs Stumfold
to Miss Mackenzie as soon as she returned. On this occasion Miss
Mackenzie received her cup the first after the father of the house,
but the words spoken to her were stern to the ear.

"Perhaps you will put in the sugar yourself. It lightens the labour."

Miss Mackenzie expressed her willingness to do so and regretted that
Mrs Stumfold should have to work so hard. Could she be of assistance?

"I'm quite used to it, thank you," said Mrs Stumfold.

The words were