ning.

"Hester says one religion is as good as another to get to Heaven
by," murmured Jane.

"Not if we deny our own for the world's sake," said Anne. "Is the
chapel here a Popish one?"

"No; the Queen has an Oratory, but the Popish chapel is at St.
James's--across the Park. The Protestant one is here at Whitehall,
and there are daily prayers at nine o'clock, and on Sunday music
with three fiddlers, and my grandmother says it might almost as well
be Popish at once."

"Did your grandmother bring you up?"

"Yes. My mother died when I was seven years old, and my grandmother
bred us all up. You should hear her talk of the good old times
before the Kings came back and there were no Bishops and no book
prayers--but my father says we must swim with the stream, or he
would not have got any custom at his coffee-house."

"Is that his calling?"

"Ay! No one has a better set of guests than in the Golden Lamb.
The place is full. The great Dr. Hammond sees his patients there,
and it is all one buzz of the wits. It was because of that that my
Lord Sunderland made interest, and got me here. How did you come?"

Anne briefly explained, and Jane broke out--

"Then you will be my friend, and we will tell each other all our
secrets. You are a Protestant too. You will be mine, and not
Bridgeman's or Dunord's--I hate them."

In point of fact Anne did not feel much attracted by the proffer of
friendship, and she certainly did not intend to tell Jane Humphreys
all her secrets, nor to vow enmity to the other colleagues, but she
gravely answered that she trusted they would be friends and help to
maintain one another's faith. She was relieved that Miss Bridgeman
here came in to take her first turn of rest till she was to be
called up at one o'clock.

As Jane Humphreys had predicted, Mrs. Royer and Anne alone were left
in charge of the nursling while every one went to morning Mass.
Then followed breakfast and the levee of his Royal Highness, lasting
as on the previous day till dinner-time; and the afternoon was as
before, except that the day was fine enough for the child to be
carried out with all his attendants behind him to take the air in
the private gardens.

If this was to be the whole course of life at the palace, Anne began
to feel that she had made a great mistake. She was by no means
attracted by her companions, though Miss Bridgeman decided that she
must know persons of condition, and made overtures of friends