my mind to ask all the
people in the court, who could possibly come, to have a Christmas-eve
gathering in my house. I got them all, except the Crimps, in Number Two,
who would not, do what I could. Then I asked four of my friends to come
and bring their instruments; for there's nothing like music to melt
people together. But, oh, Mr. Judge, not one house knows that another
house in the court is to be here; and, oh, Mr. Judge, I've got such a
secret!" And here Miss Pix's cork flew to the ceiling, in the manner
hinted at by Mr. Paul Le Clear; while Nicholas felt himself to have
known Miss Pix from birth, and to be, in a special manner, her
prime-minister on this evening.

It was not long before there was another ring, and Mr. Le Clear
appeared, who received the jiggoty Miss Pix's welcome in a smiling and
well-bred manner, and suffered himself to be introduced to the various
persons present, when all seized the new opportunity to discover the
names of the musical gentlemen, and fasten them to the right owners.
Paul laughed when he saw Nicholas, and spoke to him as an old
acquaintance. Miss Pix was suddenly in great alarm, and, beckoning away
Nicholas, whispered, "Don't for the world tell him where the others
live." Like the prime-minister with a state-secret, Nicholas went back
to Paul, and spent the next few minutes in the trying task of answering
leading questions with misleading answers.

"I see," said the acute Mr. Le Clear to himself; "the aunt is that
marplotty dame who has turned our young Judge into a prisoner at the
bar"; and he entered into conversation with Mrs. Starkey with great
alacrity, finding her a very ripe cucumber. Mr. Manlius, who was
talking, in easy words of two syllables, to the musical gentlemen,
overheard some of Mrs. Starkey's revelations to Mr. Le Clear, and,
watching his opportunity, got Paul into a corner, where he favored him
with some confidences respecting the lady.

"You may have thought, Sir," said he, in a whisper, "that Mrs. Starkey
is--is,"--and he filled out the sentence with an expressive gesture
toward his own well-balanced head.

"Not at all," said Paul, politely.

"She is periodically affected," continued Mr. Manlius, "with what I may
perhaps call excessive and ill-balanced volubility. Mrs. Starkey, Sir,
is a quiet person, rarely speaking; but once in five or six weeks,--the
periods do not return with exact regularity,--she is subject to some
hidden influence, which looses