o,"
burst in Mrs. Morris, with a holy terror in her voice.

"Well, ma'am, I'm capable of all that--and worse."

What that "worse" was there is no saying, though possibly Mr. Mosely
was trying to guess at it in the whisper he ventured to Mrs. Morris, and
which made that lady smile incredulously.

"I now, sir, rise to put the original motion," said O'Shea, assuming
that parliamentary tone which scandal pretended he displayed everywhere
but in the House; "is it the opinion of this committee that we should
all go and visit the Villa Caprini?"

"Are we quite sure it is to be seen?" interposed Mr. Layton; "it may be
occupied, and by persons who have no fancy to receive strangers."

"The observation strikes me as singularly narrow and illiberal, sir,"
burst in Morgan, with warmth. "Are we of the nineteenth century to be
told that any man--I don't care how he calls himself--has a vested right
in the sight or inspection of objects devised and designed and completed
centuries before he was born?"

"Well put, Tom,--remarkably well put," smothered out Mrs. Morgan.

"Will you say, sir," assumed he, thus cheered on to victory,--"will you
say, sir, that if these objects--frescos, bas-reliefs, or whatever
other name you give them--have the humanizing influence you assume
for them,--which, by the way, I am quite ready to dispute at another
opportunity with you or that other young gentleman yonder, whose
simpering sneer would seem to disparage my sentiment--"

"If you mean me, sir," took up Mr. Mosely, "I was n't so much as
attending to one word you said."

"No, Tom, certainly not," burst in Mrs. Morgan, answering with energy
some sudden ejaculated purpose of her wrathy spouse.

"I simply meant to say," interposed Layton, mildly, "that such a
visit as we propose might be objected to, or conceded in a way little
agreeable to ourselves."

"A well-written note, a gracefully worded request, which nobody could
do better than Mr. Alfred Layton--" began Mrs. Morris, when a dissenting
gesture from that gentleman stopped her. "Or, perhaps," continued she,
"Mr. Gorman O'Shea would so far assist our project?"

"My motion is to appear at the bar of the house,--I mean at the
gate-lodge,--sending in our names, with a polite inquiry to know if we
may see the place," said Mr. O'Shea.

"Well, stranger, I stand upon your platform," chimed in Quackinboss; "I
'm in no manner of ways 'posted' up in your Old World doings, but I 'd
say that you