sh of mental and moral training in the development of
the sickly imagination of the head and the empty vanities of the
heart.

For a time the dilapidated condition of kitchen and refectory
restricted the scale of hospitality at headquarters. But Lady Mabel
soon completed her reforms of house and household, in which she found
old Moodie an able assistant. Captain Cranfield had to bring his
labors of love to an end, and Lord Strathern celebrated the event by
feasting a large party of his friends.

While the company was assembled, Lady Mabel led a party of the first
comers through the apartments, to admire the results of the labor and
taste bestowed upon them. Some of the more prying peeped into the
kitchen to see what was going on there.

"I am glad to see," said Captain Hatton, "that though this is a
monastic house, and this a fast day, we shall not have to dine
orthodoxly, on _bacalhao_ and _sardinhas_."

"Nor be bored with the long Latin grace," said Major Warren, "which
the very walls of the refectory are tired of hearing and not
understanding."

"Would rendering it into English reconcile you to its length?" asked
Lady Mabel.

"Not in the least. I think nothing so heterodox as a long grace, while
soup and fish grow cold."

"I am told," said Lady Mabel, ascending to the apartment above, "that
this was the abbot's own room."

"That is very likely," said Captain Hatton, "from its neighborhood to
the kitchen."

"It is not exactly the apartment," she continued, "which I would
design for a lady's withdrawing room. But, if it satisfied the holy
father before it was thus improved, it is too good for a heretic like
me. I sometimes feel myself a profane intruder here, and, when I call
to mind whom this building belongs to, and see so many red-coated
gentry stalking at ease through dormitory, refectory and cloisters, I
think of rooks who have fled the rookery, before a flock of flamingoes
who usurp their place."

"The pious crows," said Captain Hatton, "would forgive our intrusion,
did they see the bird of paradise that attracts us hither."

"Put a weight on your fancy, Captain Hatton," said Lady Mabel. "Such
another flight and it may soar away altogether. Pray observe the
admirable effect of those hangings, with which Captain Cranfield has
concealed the dark and narrow passage that leads to the oratory."

Major Warren was provoked at the general admiration of Cranfield's
taste and skill, and stung by the repeat