gled with the scrape of a fiddle preluding in the kitchen; but the
Lammeters were guests whose arrival had evidently been thought of so
much that it had been watched for from the windows, for Mrs. Kimble,
who did the honours at the Red House on these great occasions, came
forward to meet Miss Nancy in the hall, and conduct her up-stairs.
Mrs. Kimble was the Squire's sister, as well as the doctor's wife--a
double dignity, with which her diameter was in direct proportion; so
that, a journey up-stairs being rather fatiguing to her, she did not
oppose Miss Nancy's request to be allowed to find her way alone to the
Blue Room, where the Miss Lammeters' bandboxes had been deposited on
their arrival in the morning.

There was hardly a bedroom in the house where feminine compliments were
not passing and feminine toilettes going forward, in various stages, in
space made scanty by extra beds spread upon the floor; and Miss Nancy,
as she entered the Blue Room, had to make her little formal curtsy to a
group of six. On the one hand, there were ladies no less important
than the two Miss Gunns, the wine merchant's daughters from Lytherly,
dressed in the height of fashion, with the tightest skirts and the
shortest waists, and gazed at by Miss Ladbrook (of the Old Pastures)
with a shyness not unsustained by inward criticism. Partly, Miss
Ladbrook felt that her own skirt must be regarded as unduly lax by the
Miss Gunns, and partly, that it was a pity the Miss Gunns did not show
that judgment which she herself would show if she were in their place,
by stopping a little on this side of the fashion. On the other hand,
Mrs. Ladbrook was standing in skull-cap and front, with her turban in
her hand, curtsying and smiling blandly and saying, "After you, ma'am,"
to another lady in similar circumstances, who had politely offered the
precedence at the looking-glass.

But Miss Nancy had no sooner made her curtsy than an elderly lady came
forward, whose full white muslin kerchief, and mob-cap round her curls
of smooth grey hair, were in daring contrast with the puffed yellow
satins and top-knotted caps of her neighbours. She approached Miss
Nancy with much primness, and said, with a slow, treble suavity--

"Niece, I hope I see you well in health." Miss Nancy kissed her aunt's
cheek dutifully, and answered, with the same sort of amiable primness,
"Quite well, I thank you, aunt; and I hope I see you the same."

"Thank you, niece; I keep my hea