ttle simpering speech she makes on entering the drawing-room. 'So you
see, my dear Mrs. Kennyfeck, there is no resisting you. Colonel
White assured me that your pleasant dinners always set him up for a
month,--he, he, he.'"

If Cashel had not laughed heartily at the lisping imitation, it is
possible Mrs. Kennyfeck might have been displeased; but as the quiz
"took," she showed no umbrage whatever.

"The Honorable Downie Meek, Under Secretary of State," read Olivia, with
a little more of emphasis than on the last-mentioned names.

"A person you'll be charmed with, Mr. Cashel,--so highly informed, so
well bred, so perfectly habituated to move in the very highest circles,"
said Mrs. Kennyfeck, giving herself, as she spoke, certain graces of
gesture which she deemed illustrative of distinguished fashion.

"A cucumber dressed in oil," whispered Miss Kennyfeck, who showed more
than once a degree of impatience at these eulogistic descriptions.

"The Dean of Dramcondera, your great favorite, mamma."

"So he is, my dear. Now, Mr. Cashel, I shall insist upon you liking my
Dean. I call him _my_ Dean, because one day last spring--"

"Mrs. Biles wants to speak to you, ma'am, for a minute," said the butler
from behind the chair; and although the interruption was anything
but pleasant, yet the summons must be obeyed, for Mrs. Biles was the
housekeeper, and any approach to treating her with indifference or
contempt on the eve of a great dinner would be about as impolitic as
insulting a general who was about to command in a great battle; so that
Mrs. Kennyfeck rose to comply, not even venturing a word of complaint,
lest the formidable functionary should hear of it, and take her revenge
on the made dishes.

"Now for the Dean. Is mamma out of hearing?" said Miss Kennyfeck, who
rejoiced at the casual opportunity of a little portrait-painting in
a different style. "Conceive a tall, pompous man, with large white
features, and a high bald head with a conical top; a sharp, clear, but
unpleasant voice, always uttering grave nonsense, or sublime absurdity.
He was a brilliant light at Oxford, and came over to illumine our
darkness, and if pedantry could only supply the deficiency in the potato
crop, he would be a providence to the land. His affectation is to know
everything, from chuck-farthing to conic sections, and so to diffuse his
information as always to talk science to young ladies, and discuss the
royal game of goose with Lords of t