oor of Joppa."

Mrs. Upjohn may have had suspicions that all was not going on precisely
as she had planned in that other half of her domains which she had
surrendered to Maria's feeble guardianship, but it certainly could not
be laid to her blame if young people would amuse themselves even at her
house. If they wilfully persisted in neglecting the means of grace she
had conscientiously provided for them, so much the worse for them, not
for her; and if Mr. Upjohn found the contemplation of Mrs. Bruce's
profile, and her occasional smiles at him as she bent over her ugly
work, not sufficient of an indemnity for his enforced silence, and
chose to sneak over to the young people's side and enjoy himself too,
as an inopportune and hearty guffaw from thence testified just at the
wrong moment, when Mr. Webb had reached the culminating point of the
Baroness' death, and was drawing tears from the ladies' eyes by the
irresistible pathos of his voice,--why, Mrs. Upjohn owned in her heart
that it was only what might be expected of him, and that she couldn't
help that either.

So at last the reading came to an end. Everybody said it had been
unprecedentedly delightful, and they should never forget that dear
Baroness so long as they lived, and they thought Mrs. Upjohn herself
might have sat for the original of the biography, so identical were her
virtues with those of the departed saint, and so exactly did she resemble
her in every particular except just in the outward circumstances of her
life. And Mrs. Upjohn modestly entreated them to desist drawing so
unworthy a comparison, and said it was an example of a life they should
each and all do well to imitate so far as in them lay, and then she went
about collecting the nightgowns, and (oh, cruellest of all!) inspecting
the button-holes. It was an excellent day's work, she reported, fanning
herself vigorously, and Miss Brooks, as champion button-hole-maker,
having made three more than any one else, should have the post of honor
and be taken in to supper by Mr. Upjohn, who was routed out from the
parlor for the purpose, very red in the face, and still convulsed with
laughter. Mrs. Bruce may have suspected this to be designed as a neat way
of cutting her out, but there is no knowing to what lengths a flippant
widow's imagination will not go, and any way Mr. Upjohn quite atoned
afterward for any temporary neglect, by paying her the most assiduous
attentions right in the face of his wife, w