nd, therefore, conscious of the hubbub of clacking
tongues.

At last Mrs. Ledwich glanced at the mistress's watch, in its pasteboard
tower, in Gothic architecture, and insisted on proceeding to business.
So they all sat down round a circular table, with a very fine red, blue,
and black oilcloth, whose pattern was inseparably connected, in Ethel's
mind, with absurdity, tedium, and annoyance.

The business was opened by the announcement of what they all knew
before, that the proceeds of the fancy fair amounted to one hundred and
forty-nine pounds fifteen shillings and tenpence.

Then came a pause, and Mrs. Ledwich said that next they had to consider
what was the best means of disposing of the sum gained in this most
gratifying manner. Every one except Flora, Ethel, and quiet Mrs.
Ward, began to talk at once. There was a great deal about Elizabethan
architecture, crossed by much more, in which normal, industrial,
and common things, most often met Ethel's ear, with some stories,
second-hand, from Harvey Anderson, of marvellous mistakes; and, on the
opposite side of the table, there was Mrs. Ledwich, impressively saying
something to the silent Mrs. Ward, marking her periods with emphatic
beats with her pencil, and each seemed to close with "Mrs. Perkinson's
niece," whom Ethel knew to be Cherry's intended supplanter. She looked
piteously at Flora, who only smiled and made a sign with her hand to her
to be patient. Ethel fretted inwardly at that serene sense of power; but
she could not but admire how well Flora knew how to bide her time, when,
having waited till Mrs. Ledwich had nearly wound up her discourse on
Mrs. Elwood's impudence, and Mrs. Perkinson's niece, she leaned towards
Miss Boulder, who sat between, and whispered to her, "Ask Mrs. Ledwich
if we should not begin with some steps for getting the land."

Miss Boulder, having acted as conductor, the president exclaimed, "Just
so, the land is the first consideration. We must at once take steps
for obtaining it." Thereupon Mrs. Ledwich, who "always did things
methodically," moved, and Miss Anderson seconded, that the land
requisite for the school must be obtained, and the nine ladies held up
their hands, and resolved it.

Miss Rich duly recorded the great resolution, and Miss Boulder suggested
that, perhaps, they might write to the National Society, or Government,
or something; whereat Miss Rich began to flourish one of the very long
goose quills which stood in the