g one of the three; it was she who regulated
their household (they all lived together), kept the joint purse, and
decided every doubtful point that arose: whether they should or should
not ask Mrs. So-and-so to tea; whether Mary should or should not be
discharged; whether or not they should go to Broadstairs or to Sandgate
for the month of October. In fact, Miss Margaret was the WILL of the
body corporate.

Miss Sibyl was of milder nature and more melancholy temperament; she had
a poetic turn of mind, and occasionally wrote verses. Some of these
had been printed on satin paper, and sold for objects of beneficence
at charity bazaars. The county newspapers said that the verses "were
characterized by all the elegance of a cultured and feminine mind." The
other two sisters agreed that Sibyl was the genius of the household,
but, like all geniuses, not sufficiently practical for the world.
Miss Sarah Chillingly, the youngest of the three, and now just in her
forty-fourth year, was looked upon by the others as "a dear thing,
inclined to be naughty, but such a darling that nobody could have the
heart to scold her." Miss Margaret said "she was a giddy creature." Miss
Sibyl wrote a poem on her, entitled, "Warning to a young Lady against
the Pleasures of the World." They all called her Sally; the other
two sisters had no diminutive synonyms. Sally is a name indicative of
fastness. But this Sally would not have been thought fast in another
household, and she was now little likely to sally out of the one she
belonged to. These sisters, who were all many years older than Sir
Peter, lived in a handsome, old-fashioned, red-brick house, with a large
garden at the back, in the principal street of the capital of their
native county. They had each L10,000 for portion; and if he could have
married all three, the heir-at-law would have married them, and settled
the aggregate L30,000 on himself. But we have not yet come to recognize
Mormonism as legal, though if our social progress continues to slide in
the same grooves as at present, Heaven only knows what triumphs over
the prejudices of our ancestors may not be achieved by the wisdom of our
descendants!

CHAPTER III.

SIR PETER stood on his hearthstone, surveyed the guests seated in
semicircle, and said: "Friends,--in Parliament, before anything
affecting the fate of a Bill is discussed, it is, I believe, necessary
to introduce the Bill." He paused a moment, rang the bell, and said t