had heard--such
a nice voice; it was enough to make you laugh with pleasure just to
hear it--and the head we could see towering over the sunbonnets began
to move towards us. The girls edged away good-naturedly, and there was
a man almost as fine-looking as Mr. Brett, smiling at us, and holding
out his big hand.

Everything was big about him; his voice, his brown throat, his
shoulders, and his good white smile, shining with kindness and two rows
of perfect teeth; his nature, too, as you could see by his beaming,
humorous grey eyes, and the generous dimple in his square chin.

"Whit, this is the little English ladyship I've told you about, who's
staying over at our house," said Mr. Trowbridge. So we were introduced,
and the great Whit shook my hand with a vigorous magnetism which made
me feel I would like to clap, and give him three cheers.

He is the sort of man I should try to make President of the United
States, if I were an American; and I'm sure he would get lots of votes
from his part of the country if he were nominated.

"I'm real pleased to meet you," said he, "and I'm honoured to have you
visit my store. Say, I guess some of our American leading ladies will
have to get a hustle on if they want to save themselves now you're over
here. I didn't know they made 'em like that on your side. I tell you
what it is, Honourable, I won't have much use for some of our fellows
if they let her go back, eh? Now, ma'am, you just tell me what handle
I'm to put to your name, so I won't make any fool mistake, and then we
can get ahead like a house on fire."

"I'm usually called Lady Betty," I said, feeling an idiot, as everyone
was standing round in a ring.

"What, at the first go? No, ma'am, I couldn't do it. I haven't got the
cool, ingrowing nerve. Couldn't I make it Countess, to show my
respect?"

"But I'm not a Countess," I laughed.

"Well, I guess I'll just go one better and raise you to Princess, then.
It's the best I can do, having been reared with plain Misses and
Mississes. You look like a Princess, anyhow, and the Queen might be
proud to have you for a cousin. Now we've fixed that up, maybe you'll
let me show you around the premises, and you can tell me if the
Emporium bears any resemblance to your London stores."

"Very well, Prince, I shall be delighted," said I, and he laughed a
nice, mellow roar.

It was a great thing, I soon found, for a visitor to be escorted by the
proprietor of the Emporium. Never was