hem.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Some days after, while we were conversing over our tea, we heard the
noise of a carriage; and Mr. Stanley, looking out from a bow window in
which he and I were sitting, said it was Lady and Miss Rattle driving up
the avenue. He had just time to add, "These are our _fine_ neighbors.
They always make us a visit as soon as they come down, while all the
gloss and lustre of London is fresh upon them. We have always our
regular routine of conversation. While her Ladyship is pouring the
fashions into Mrs. Stanley's ear, Miss Rattle, who is about Ph[oe]be's
age, entertains my daughters and me with the history of her own talents
and acquirements."

Here they entered. After a few compliments, Lady Rattle seated herself
between Lady Belfield and Mrs. Stanley at the upper end of the room;
while the fine, sprightly, boisterous girl of fifteen or sixteen threw
herself back on the sofa at nearly her full length between Mr. Stanley
and me, the Miss Stanleys and Sir John sitting near us, within hearing
of her lively loquacity.

"Well, Miss Amelia," said Mr. Stanley, "I dare say you have made good
use of your time this winter; I suppose you have ere now completed the
whole circle of the arts. Now let me hear what you have been doing, and
tell me your whole achievements as frankly as you used to do when you
were a little girl." "Indeed," replied she, "I have not been idle, if I
must speak the truth. One has so many things to learn, you know. I have
gone on with my French and Italian of course, and I am beginning German.
Then comes my drawing-master; he teaches me to paint flowers and shells,
and to draw ruins and buildings, and to take views. He is a good soul,
and is finishing a set of pictures, and half a dozen fire-screens, which
I began for mamma. He _does_ help me to be sure, but indeed I do some of
it myself, don't I, mamma?" calling out to her mother, who was too much
absorbed in her own narratives to attend to her daughter.

"And then," pursued the young prattler, "I learn varnishing, and
gilding, and japaning. And next winter I shall learn modeling, and
etching, and engraving in mezzotinto and aquatinta; for Lady Di. Dash
learns etching, and mamma says, as I shall have a better fortune than
Lady Di., she vows I shall learn every thing she does. Then I have a
dancing-master, who teaches me the Scotch and Irish steps; and another
who teaches me attitudes, and I shall soon learn the waltz, and I ca