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"Is his name Colonel Domville?" I inquired, growing interested.

"No, though, strangely enough, he is a Colonel. He gave me his card-by the way, I think I have it in my pocket;" and he drew forth a card, handing it to me, on which I read:

"Colonel Adrian Stanhope, Clynden Hall." My interest fell at once; and I returned the card without remark.

"A very good style of man," he continued. "His sister is with him. Miss Stanhope is an elderly lady, but not old. I like them both very much.

He kept throwing out these remarks as he wound the bandage round my wrist. His mind was evidentally running on them. "Is Colonel Stanhope very ill?"

"No; not very, or rather in a perpetual state of invalidism—a valetudinarian, in fact. They have come here for the summer, and are friends of Mr. and Mrs. Baines. My introduction was purely accidental, as I am not a fashionable doctor-I hope you don't object," he said, with a smile. "I happened to be in the Hotel when they were sending for a doctor in all directions, and Miss Stanhope begged I would prescribe for her brother; this is the history of my acquaintance with them. And now I think your wrist will do until I can liberate it finally."

"Ah!" said my uncle, coming into the room, looking pleased to see him. "How do you do? and how is my poor little victim? I am longing for a cabinet to put all my odds-and-ends of curiosities in, but I have not plucked up courage to visit the scene of Mary's disaster; however, if you are walking I don't mind going under your shelter a part of the way; if you will just wait one moment I will be with you."

"Your uncle manages to amuse himself, I see." said Mr. Addison. "Yes; he is always busy about something or another."

"A sensible man; there is nothing in the world like good honest hard work-thank God, I have lived to find that out. Here he comes-I must wish you good-bye," he said, rising, and they left together.

"So you have had a visit from your medical man," cried Dolly, with one of her bright laughs, when she returned. "We met him with Uncle Worthington. By the way, Mim, you should have told him to call when your aunt and sister were at home; but of course you forgot to do so. There are no flirts, my dear, so dangerous as quiet ones, remember! They undermine the citadel; now, I prefer a storming party."

"Mr. Addison does not seem to me the sort of man likely to be undermined or stormed," said I; "in either case he is at your disposal,"

"I would rather be excused," said Dolly, with a grimace. "But oh, Mim, what do you think? Mrs. Baines has invited Colonel Domville for the twentieth."

"Do you intend storming that fortress, if it be such? From what I have heard I think the outworks have fallen already." "I hope they have," she answered, naïvely. "But joking apart, Mim, he is very clever, and has an excellent position."

“And how charming to spend your days talking like the Sapient Review for the rest of your life!"

"What idiots we are to be chattering like this!" she exclaimed, with a gay laugh, as she tripped out of the room humming the old song, which she paraphrased thus:

"What care I how fine he be,

If he be not fine for me,"

while I was summoned to the drawing-room to see Mrs. Freeman, our neighbour, who had called to ask how I was, having heard of my accident.

She was a kind, weary-looking little woman, who seemed as if life was a hard text, out of which she was for ever trying to make a good sermon. She interested me so much that we soon became very friendly, and I often went to sit an hour with her.”

"We shall meet you at the Baines's party?" I said, after she had been with me some time.

"No; we do not visit, although Mr. Baines is our clergyman. I have found that the kingdom of heaven, at present, on earth is decidedly exclusive. It likes to be sure that you are well-born and well-bred, or else have the equivalent in your purse, before it extends you its hospitality; unless you happen to belong to the very poor, when of course you can share in the tea-and-cake receptions of the schoolrooms, where the people sit, and the pastor stands and all is distinct.

"Are you not severe ?" I suggested.

"Possibly, and yet I am but giving you my experience. I trust you may be more fortunate in yours."

Poor Mrs. Freeman, the society of ladies and gentlemen had evidently not been very kind to her, and I soon learnt who was the chief offender, as she remarked presently. "You are sure to encounter a certain Mrs. St. Vincent at Mrs. Baines's party; she is the widow of a general officer, and introduces the parade ground into society. Her vocation in Southport is to take the command of the cliques, and no one is suffered to passes current without the certificate of her approval."

"How absurd!"

"Yes, but instructive and amusing at the same time. She is a

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"Weak brethren !" I exclaimed, laughing.
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profess themselves. Fr. É gallist an. temptation, but abstain from certain harmless amusements on account of the weak brethren. I am rather curious, therefore, to see cre; or to know if the brother exists that ever owned to a weakness that would not yield some self-complacency in owning it," she sail, smiling as she rose to leave, making ... promise to see her as soon as I could after our party

was over.

At leth the day of the twentieth arrived. To my aunt's vexation, Uncle Worthington anrounced his intention of staying at home that evening. After much expostulation he only said

"If you expect me to go to such balderdash as an At Home, you are very much mistaken. If any one will come and take me as I am ["Heaven forbid !" muttered Dolly], and have a game of whist, I shall be happy to welcome them; but I'll see them at Old Harry's first before I go and dress up to spend an evening to talk bosh, so understand that at once. As long as the girls want to go they can, and you are free to take them; but I mean to stay at home."

"Come only this once," pleaded my aunt, "as it is our first party; what excuse can I make for you? You are in perfect health."

"Say the truth, my dear, that I prefer a chapter out of Swift, Shakespeare, or Sterne, if I want amusement, and to sit at home with my pipe in my comfortable cabin up aloft, to seeing a lot of men and women, dressed and undressed, making fools of themselves, pretending to be very polite and fond of each other, when they are

ready to cut each other's characters, if not throats, at the smallest notice."

As his obstinacy on this point was not to be overcome we were forced to go without him.

Dolly and I were immensely interested in each other's appearance this evening when the ceremony of dressing took place, -she in pink, I in white.

"Truly you are born to carry all before you-you look splendid!" I exclaimed, with a genuine burst of admiration as I finished assisting her.

"Thank you, dear," she said quietly, taking it as her due. "Now let me help you."

After a few finishing touches, she said, "Yes, you will do; "I like your dress extremely; there is a decided air of superiority about it that will carry off the palm. Fe prepared to create a sensation, my child."

"Don't talk nonsense! you make me feel miserable; I never could make friends with people at first."

"I didn't talk about your making friends: I simply said you would create a sensation, a pleasing flutter of hope and surprise." "Don't forget your music," said my aunt to me, at that moment eatering the room.

"But my wrist!" I exclaimed, glad to escape the ordeal of a public performance.

"Dolly will accompany you."

"Of course, I will; I wouldn't have you leave your music behind for worlds. But before we go I wish to remind you, my beloved friends, that if you have occasion to address me in public this evening, which no doubt you will, that the name I received at my baptism, when I promised to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world-a promise, I am happy to think, no one ever seems, or is expected, to keep, by the way-was Medora, not Dolly, as in tender moments you are wont to call me ;" and she finished off with a low bow. After a hearty laugh at her dramatic action and request we started for Mrs. Baines's At Home.

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"I mean that ple have grown so accustomed to the ritual of certain truths that their dep sense is lost in sounds that convey no meaning beyond the acknowledged fat that they have become Platioules to which we all assent, Ent nevet leed.”

"Shall we have any dancing at Mrs. Baines's? I am longing for a dance"""

"I fear Lot: the weak brethren Lave to be considered in a clergyman's house."

"Weak brethren!" I exclaimed, laughing. "What are they like?"

"I can't say-fa I never saw one. In livi lually most people profess themselves proof against all temptation, but abstain from certain harmless amusements on account of the weak brethren. I am rather curious, therefore, to see one; or to know if the brother exists that ever owned to a weakness that would not yield some self-complacency in owning it," she said, smiling as she rose to leave, making the promise to see her as soon as I could after our party

was over.

At length the day of the twentieth arrived. To my aunt's vexation, Uncle Worthington announced his intention of staying at home that evening. After inuch expostulation he only said

"If you expect me to go to such balderdash as an At Home, you are very much mistaken. If any one will come and take me as I am ["Heaven forbid muttered Dolly], and have a game of whist, I shall be happy to welcome them; but I'll see them at Old Harry's first before I go and dress up to spend an evening to talk bosh, so understand that at once. As long as the girls want to go they can, and you are free to take them; but I mean to stay at home."

"Come only this once," pleaded my aunt, "as it is our first party; what excuse can I make for you? You are in perfect health."

"Say the truth, my dear, that I prefer a chapter out of Swift, Shakespeare, or Sterne, if I want amusement, and to sit at home with my pipe in my comfortable cabin up aloft, to seeing a lot of men and women, dressed and undressed, making fools of themselves, pretending to be very polite and fond of each other, when they are

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