inclined herself, slightly protruding her
elbows as she did so, as if just to draw attention to the fact that she
was possessed of those appendages and could use them if necessary.

Madame Malkiel, or rather Madame Sagittarius, as she must for the
present be called, was a smallish woman of some forty winters. Her hair,
which was drawn away intellectually from an ample and decidedly convex
brow, was as black as a patent leather boot, and had a gloss upon it as
of carefully-adjusted varnish. Her eyes were very large, very dark and
very prominent. Her features were obstreperous and rippling, running
from right to left, and her teeth, which were shaded by a tiny black
moustache, gleamed in a manner that could scarcely be called natural.
She was attired in a black velvet gown trimmed with a very large
quantity of beadwork, a bonnet adorned with purple cherries, green
tulips and orange-coloured ostrich tips, a pelisse, to which bugles had
been applied with no uncertain hand, and an opal necklace. Her gloves
were of white, her boots of black kid, the latter being furnished with
elastic sides, and over her left wrist she carried a plush reticule,
whose mouth was kept shut by a tightly-drawn scarlet riband. On the left
side of her pelisse reposed a round bouquet of violets about the size of
a Rugby football.

"I thought you might like to have some tea," began the Prophet, in his
most soothing manner, while Mr. Ferdinand, with pursed lips, softly
arranged that beverage upon the seat which Mr. Sagittarius--so we must
call him--had just vacated.

"Thank you," said Madame Sagittarius, with dignity. "It would be
acceptable. The long journey from the banks of the Mouse to these
central districts is not without its fatigue. A beautiful equipage!"

"You said--"

"You have a very fine equipage."

"You have seen the brougham?" said the Prophet, in some surprise.

"What broom?" buzzed Madame Sagittarius.

"I thought you were admiring--"

"The tea equipage."

"Oh, yes, to be sure. Queen Anne silver, yes."

"A great woman!" said Madame Sagittarius, spreading a silk handkerchief
that exactly matched the ostrich tips in her bonnet carefully over
her velvet lap. "All who have read Mrs. Markham's work of genius with
understanding must hold her name in reverence. A noble creature! A pity
she died!"

"A great pity indeed!"

"Still we must remember that _Mors omnis communibus_. We must not forget
that."

"No, no."

"And after a