able house.

MRS. B.--Yes, as you find it.

LADY K.--Yes, as I find it, when I come to take care of my departed,
angel's children, Mrs. Bonnington--[pointing to picture]--of THAT
dear seraph's orphans, Mrs. Bonnington. YOU cannot. You have other
duties--other children--a husband at home in delicate health, who--

MRS. B.--Lady Kicklebury, no one shall say I don't take care of my dear
husband!

MILLIKEN.--My dear mother! My dear Lady Kicklebury! [To T., who has come
forward.] They spar so every night they meet, Touchit. Ain't it hard?

LADY K.--I say you DO take care of Mr. Bonnington, Mrs. Bonnington, my
dear creature! and that is why you can't attend to Horace. And as he
is of a very easy temper--except sometimes with his poor Arabella's
mother--he allows all his tradesmen to cheat him, all his servants to
cheat him, Howell to be rude to everybody--to me amongst other people,
and why not to my servant Bulkeley, with whom Lord Toddleby's groom of
the chambers gave me the very highest character.

MRS. B.--I'm surprised that noblemen HAVE grooms in their chambers. I
should think they were much better in the stables. I am sure I always
think so when we dine with Doctor Clinker. His man does bring such a
smell of the stable with him.

LADY K.--He! he! you mistake, my dearest creature! Your poor mother
mistakes, my good Horace. You have lived in a quiet and most respectable
sphere--but not--not--

MRS. B.--Not what, Lady Kicklebury? We have lived at Richmond twenty
years--in my late husband's time--when we saw a great deal of company,
and when this dear Horace was a dear boy at Westminster School. And we
have PAID for everything we have had for twenty years, and we have owed
not a penny to any TRADESMAN, though we mayn't have had POWDERED
FOOTMEN SIX FEET HIGH, who were impertinent to all the maids in the
place--Don't! I WILL speak, Horace--but servants who loved us, and who
lived in our families.

MILLIKEN.--Mamma, now, my dear, good old mother! I am sure Lady
Kicklebury meant no harm.

LADY K.--Me! my dear Horace! harm! What harm could I mean?

MILLIKEN.--Come! let us have a game at whist. Touchit, will you make a
fourth? They go on so every night almost. Ain't it a pity, now?

TOUCHIT.--Miss Prior generally plays, doesn't she?

MILLIKEN.--And a very good player, too. But I thought you might like it.

TOUCHIT.--Well, not exactly. I don't like sixpenny points, Horace, or
quarrelling with old dragons about t