was at least pleasantly administered, and completely free from dulness and constraint. Several, indeed, did in process of time leave, from unexplained causes; and Mrs. Lackingham shed tears over their departure: however, she bore her loss with wonderful equanimity when they

were once gone.

Meanwhile, if the fare was sometimes scanty, and sometimes profuse, it was always choice and admirably cooked; if the breakfasts were thinly set forth at no very defined hour, the suppers, at which there were frequently a few guests, were models of what that meal should be.

Mrs. Lackingham was a woman of great and versatile talent; she had a gift of language, combined with a power of memory, which made her an admirable raconteuse. If she did not always adhere to rigid truth, few detected it; and, after all, a variation in that anecdote which is to point a jest or a moral is generally permitted without serious reprobation. She was well read, not only in the light literature of the day, but in the English classics; moreover, with

the large share of tact and penetration, and happy audacity of purpose which lay beneath her well-assumed meekness, there were the remains of considerable personal beauty.

These were no ordinary advantages, and they were managed with adroitness. An Irish gentleman, indeed, succumbed completely to these influences, and left in haste and indignation the day after his proposals had been rejected. A clergyman gave warning because he could not have his breakfast early enough; and a lady quitted the house on account of her intolerance of music: but, on the whole, Mrs. Lackingham bore these defections with great serenity, and only added a certain dejection of manner in alluding to them when she was explaining to her new friends the enormous difficulties, as she termed them, of her position. The antecedents of her career have been thus faithfully set forth, in order to enable the reader the better to understand the motives of her subsequent conduct..

One foggy November day a lady was ushered

into my consulting-room.

She began to talk

very fast, though, from the numerous veils and wraps, what she said was perfectly unintelligible; but I seemed to recognize that cheerful voice, a little cracked and older, but kindly as ever. She proceeded in haste to remove a portion of those ties and respirators which women of a certain age are so fond of wearing; and at last I beheld standing before me in the flesh Miss Carnegie, whom I had parted from some fifteen years before. Changed, indeed, she was : the bright blue eyes were somewhat dimmed and puckered round by wrinkles, as much from laughter as from cares; but the yellow rippling hair was as rebellious to comb and bandoline as ever; the face was beaming with kindliness of expression, and the complexion, though a little withered, had the delicate, healthy bloom of a Christmas flower.

"Ah, my dear Paul-or Doctor, I suppose I ought to call you now-I hardly thought to come to consult the little boy who has so often eaten bon-bons out of my box; however, I

have found you out, and now you must prescribe something for the ailments of an old woman. I am not what I was," she continued, gaily; "years will leave their mark, and old age will bring its infirmities. But my spirits

have never failed me: never yet, Paul-not for one single half-hour."

"No very serious case for me yet, then, Miss Carnegie," I replied.

I made the necessary inquiries; and, having elicited the proper information, I wrote a trifling prescription.

"And where are you staying, and what are you, of all people, doing in town?”

"I am residing in

Square for the present

as a boarder with Mrs. Lackingham."

"And I hope you are comfortable?" I said, dubiously.

"Oh, yes; that is, moderately so. You see my hostess" (she thus pleasantly idealized the connection) "has seen better days." And she proceeded to give me an account of what she knew of that lady; which, however, by no means

comprised all the particulars which I have related before. "I have no doubt," she continued, "that they have, as Mrs. Lackingham says, many heavy expenses to meet; but still I should like to have some idea of meal-times: however, the fare is all that could be wished, and the cookery is excellent, and the society very agreeable-musical people and artists, you know.”

"But if you are not comfortable, why stay?" I persisted.

"And that brings me to the reason why I left my quiet little country place, Paul. You remember my brother, who died abroad, and his son, young George ?"

66

Perfectly well."

"I took charge of him.

ine no children, and few

Providence has given

family ties; he is a

son, and more, to me. Never once has he caused me one hour's serious sorrow: he is a noble fellow now, much changed from the blue-eyed little boy for whom you used to fight battles at school. He is studying for the bar, and I came up to be near him." She laughed. "You see