ivans for its
mistress's dogs and cats; with a spare seat for a friend who might
venture in at any time for a dish of private chit-chat with the lady of
the Hall. Into this apartment I was confidentially drawn by Mrs. Hill on
the morning after my moonlight conversation with John, as with heavy
eyes and hectic cheeks, but with a saucy tongue in reserve, specially
sharpened, and a chin held at the extreme angle of self-complacency and
no toleration of interference from others, I was sailing majestically
down-stairs to put my melancholy finger as usual into the pie of the
pleasures and pastimes of the day.

"Come in, my dear," she said mysteriously, with her finger to her lip,
nodding her little fat face good-humouredly at me, and making all her
little curls shake. "I think you are a very safe person, my love, and,
besides, so fond of Rachel. I would not trouble you with my news, only
that it is a secret, and a secret is a thing that I never could endure
for any length of time without bringing on hysterics. You are not fond
of my darlings, I know. There, we will send away the noisiest."

And Mrs. Hill hereupon tumbled some half-dozen fluffy bodies out of the
window on to the verandah below, and stood for the next few moments
wagging her head and coquetting down at the ill-tempered little brutes,
who whined and scowled their resentment of the disrespectful treatment
they had received.

"Ho, my beauties! run, skip, jump!" cried the lady, throwing up her
little fat arms. And the dogs, rolling their bodies away into the sun at
last, her attention returned to me.

"I must first tell you, my love," said she, drawing a letter from her
pocket, and smoothing it open on her knee, "I must first confide to you
in strict secresy that our dear Rachel is engaged to be married."

Here the ecstatic fury of the singing-birds reached such a deafening
climax that their mistress was obliged to pause in her communication,
and to go round the room dropping extinguishers of silk and muslin over
the cages. "When the pie was opened the birds began to sing," thought I,
the pie being Mrs. Hill's budget, and I had also time to consider that
John must have sat up very late last night, or risen very early this
morning, to have matters already so very happily matured. "I wonder if
Grace would mind travelling a day sooner than she named," was the third
thought that went whizzing through my head before Mrs. Hill could
proceed any further with the news