other source of great anxiety. Francesca is a
person who is always buying things unexpectedly and sending them home
C.O.D.; always taking a cab and having it paid at the house; always
sending telegrams and messages by hansom, and notes by the Boots.

I should think, were England on the brink of a war, that the Prime
Minister might expect in his office something of the same hubbub,
uproar, and excitement that Francesca manages to evolve in this private
hotel. Naturally she cannot remember her expenditures, or extravagances,
or complications of movement for a period of seven days; and when she
attacks the Paid Out column she exclaims in a frenzy, 'Just look at
this! On the 11th they say they paid out three shillings in telegrams,
and I was at Maidenhead!' Then because we love her and cannot bear to
see her charming forehead wrinkled, we approach from our respective
corners, and the conversation is something like this:--

Salemina. "You were not at Maidenhead on the 11th, Francesca; it was the
12th."

Francesca. "Oh! so it was; but I sent no telegrams on the 11th."

Penelope. "Wasn't that the day you wired Mr. Drayton that you couldn't
go to the Zoo?"

Francesca. "Oh yes, so I did: and to Mr. Godolphin that I could. I
remember now; but that's only two."

Salemina. "How about the hairdresser whom you stopped coming from
Kensington?"

Francesca. "Yes, she's the third, that's all right then; but what in the
world is this twelve shillings?"

Penelope. "The foolish amber beads you were persuaded into buying in the
Burlington Arcade?"

Francesca. "No, those were seven shillings, and they are splitting
already."

Salemina. "Those soaps and sachets you bought on the way home the day
that you left your purse in the cab?"

Francesca. "No; they were only five shillings. Oh, perhaps they lumped
the two things; if seven and five are twelve, then that is just what
they did. (Here she takes a pencil.) Yes, they are twelve, so that's
right; what a comfort! Now here's two and six on the 13th. That was
yesterday, and I can always remember yesterdays; they are my strong
point. I didn't spend a penny yesterday; oh yes! I did pay half a crown
for a potted plant, but it was not two and six, and it was a half-crown
because it was the first time I had seen one and I took particular
notice. I'll speak to Dawson about it, but it will make no difference.
Nobody but an expert English accountant could find a flaw in one of
these bills a