adies laughed heartily, but Mr. M'Gabbery frowned bitterly. "You
must have dreamt it," said he.

"It is just possible," said George; "but I don't think it. Come, Miss
Waddington, let us have your earliest recollections."

"Ah! mine will not be interesting. They do not go back at all so far.
I think they have reference to bread and butter."

"I remember being very angry," said Miss Baker, "because papa
prophesied that I should be an old maid. It was very hard on me, for
his prophecy no doubt brought about the fact."

"But the fact is no fact as yet," said Mr. M'Gabbery, with a smirking
gallantry for which he ought to have been kicked.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. M'Gabbery," said Miss Waddington. "It is
quite an established fact. My aunt will never have my consent to
marry; and I am sure she will never dream of such a thing without
it."

"And so Mr. M'Gabbery's hopes in that direction are all at an end,"
said George, who was now able to speak to Caroline without being
heard by the others.

"I declare I think he has entertained some such idea, for he never
leaves my aunt alone for a minute. He has been very civil, very; but,
Mr. Bertram, perhaps you know that a very civil man may be a bore."

"He always is, I think. No man is really liked who is ever ready to
run on messages and tie up parcels. It is generally considered that a
man knows his own value, and that, if he be willing to do such work,
such work is fit for him."

"You never do anything to oblige, then?"

"Very rarely; at least, not in the little domestic line. If one could
have an opportunity of picking a lady out of a fire, or saving her
from the clutches of an Italian bravo, or getting her a fortune of
twenty thousand pounds, one would be inclined to do it. In such
cases, there would be no contempt mixed up with the lady's gratitude.
But ladies are never really grateful to a man for turning himself
into a flunky."

"Ah! I like to be attended to all the same."

"Then there is Mr. M'Gabbery. Half a smile will keep him at your feet
the whole day."

Mr. M'Gabbery and poor Miss Baker were now walking behind them, side
by side. But his felicity in this respect was not at all sufficient
for that gentleman. In their long journey from Egypt, he and Miss
Waddington had always been within speaking distance; and who was the
stranger of to-day that was thus to come and separate them?

"Miss Waddington," he cried, "do you remember when your horse
stumbled in