'So I understand, madam; but it is against rules to allow cooking in the bedrooms. In a house like this it would never do.' 'Why, is not this an hotel?'

'Certainly, madam.'

'And do you mean to say we are not to do as we like in the rooms we pay for? Suppose I choose to fry onions in my room; I'd like to know what you'd do to stop it.'

The man glanced appealingly at the company.

spectfully request you to leave off.'

'Then I should fry them all the faster.'

'I should re

There was a roar of laughter at these words; for it is needless to remark that, during this colloquy, every head had been turned one way, all eyes fixed upon us. I was ready to sink into the earth, and was unable to refrain from whispered entreaties that my aunt would be silent.

'What are you pulling at my gown for, child? Can't Can't you let me alone? D'ye suppose I don't know what I'm about?' said she, suddenly turning upon me.

Unable to endure more, I fled precipitately, and sought our own apartments in tears. She followed me ere long, fuming with rage.

'I never was so insulted, Jane; I'll not break bread in the house. We'll go by the night boat.'

I begged for a cup of tea, for I had eaten nothing. Permission was granted, on condition that Crow made it herself from our Crippleton stores. The expression of the waiter's face, when he found us in the very act of unpacking and making the tea, was one of unmitigated contempt; and as I did not feel sure that we were not rendering ourselves amenable to the laws of the land, I was relieved at finding no opposition offered to us.

It was a sad beginning. I sipped my tea, with difficulty repressing my tears, and aunt Dunk walked up and down the room in a state of intense irritability with everything and everybody, feeling the want of her dinner and of her netting. Suddenly a woman's voice under the window began to sing Willy, we have missed you.'

6

O that dreadful woman! why must she come squalling here? I wish she was "Willy," and altogether missing under the waves,' exclaimed aunt Dunk; and ringing the bell violently, she ordered the waiter to send that woman away, and to tell her she would not have her prowling about the house at that time of night.

'Yes, ma'am; certainly, ma'am. But I'm afraid I can't send her off, ma'am. The young gentlemen next door, No. 42, they are paying of her, and calling for another song.'

'My compliments to the gentlemen-Mrs. Dunk of Dunk Marsh's compliments and I can't let that noise go on.'

'Yes, ma'am; certainly, ma'am.' And from the roars of laughter

next door, I imagine that the message was delivered. The singing, however, continued.

This is unbearable,' said aunt Dunk. 'I've often heard English travellers called bears, but I could not have believed they would be as bad as this. I must put a stop to it at once.' And she again pulled the bell.

The waiter reappeared.

'Did you deliver my message to those gentlemen?' demanded my aunt sternly.

'Yes, ma'am; certainly, ma'am.'

'And what did they say? Now speak the truth, mind.'

'They didn't make no particular answer, ma'am.'

'I don't believe it. Who are they? what are they?'

'Well, ma'am, they is two young gents from London, ma'am; quite young.'

'I didn't ask where they came from; I want to know their names.'

'Names, ma'am? Yes, ma'am; certainly, ma'am. I'll inquire.' 'Bless the man, what is he talking about! D'ye think I'm a fool? D'ye mean to try and make me believe you don't know the names of the people that come to this house?'

'Well, ma'am, they comes and goes so fast that we often does not hear their names. But these is quite young gents, ma'am; quite young. Not a day over sixteen, I should say, either of them.' 'Boys,' exclaimed my aunt in supreme contempt, 'mere boys, and no one to look after them, of course. I'll soon give them a piece of my mind. Here, waiter, open the door and announce meMrs. Dunk of Dunk Marsh. That screeching is not to be borne.'

My entreaties were disregarded, and she marched off, preceded by the waiter, who, throwing open the door, announced her name and title in tones rendered indistinct by smothered laughter. I canght sight of two young men at an open window. They started up as my aunt appeared-astonishment plainly written on their faces. 'I've come to tell you you ought to be ashamed of yourselves,' began aunt Dunk at once. A couple of lads like you keeping that poor creature out in the cold, disturbing the whole house, and annoying the neighbourhood with her screeching and squalling. If you don't stop it at once, I'll complain to the authorities."

Pray do not trouble yourself, madam,' said the younger of the

two; 'we will have her in at once, since that is your wish.'

My wish! how dare you say such a thing! You know perfectly well I only want her to go home, and you two to go off to bed. Why, you ought both to have been in bed and asleep an hour ago. couple of lads like you; I wonder you are let to go about alone.'

A

You are too kind, madam. We want words to express our

gratitude.'

Through the open door I could plainly see their faces, the expression of which alarmed me. Astonishment was fast giving place to a keen appreciation of the fun, nor did the fact escape me of their being some years older than the waiter, for reasons best known to himself, had represented them. In an agony of fear I could no longer refrain from a whisper, intended for her ear alone. Aunt Dunk,

aunt Dunk, O, please come back!' It was overheard. 'Aunt Dunk!' exclaimed one of the young men.

'Surely this

is not my dearest, my most revered aunt Dunk! Do I indeed address her? This is an unlooked-for happiness.'

The boat will be off in twenty minutes, ma'am.

time to lose.'

Never was news more welcome.

There is no

'Tell the captain to wait for me-not to start till Mrs. Dunk of Dunk Marsh is on board, waiter,' said my aunt, making for our rooms, and utterly disregarding the speeches with which her new acquaintance continued to address her.

All was now bustle and confusion, and my relief was great. It was of short duration. We were hardly seated in the boat before the young men walked up to us.

'Dear aunt, I hope I see you comfortable?'

'I'm no aunt of yours, thank goodness.' Aside: Wonder if I am, by the bye. He might be one of the Dunks of Slowney or the Hapons of Cave, for aught I know.'

'No aunt of mine! Have you forgotten the incidents of my interesting childhood?-how you dandled me in your arms, taught my young ideas how to shoot, and otherwise worried my young life.'

You are all wrong. If you'd said your name was Dunk or Hapon I might have believed you, but I never dandled so much as a cat, or taught any one but Jane here. You are an impudent boy, and if you don't make off, I'll call the captain.'

It was unnecessary. A more peremptory commander called for his attention, and for the rest of the voyage we were safe from annoyance from him. He could not boast the same with regard to aunt Dunk. She watched him attentively as he retired with vacillating steps. She never took her eyes off him for full three minutes after he had stretched himself upon a bench, and then, darting towards him, she exclaimed in a voice above winds and waves, The boy's sick, I do declare. Decided case; the very thing I wanted under my own eye.'

And under her own eye she kept him during the whole voyage, treating him according to a theory of her own, which consisted in keeping feet and legs warm, and raising them considerably above the level of the head. Boxes and bags, &c., she piled over and under him. He resisted at first, and even attempted to call a sailor to the rescue; but the man had heard him address her a few minutes

before, and really imagining that he was her nephew, only laughed and passed on. My own state soon precluded me from watching them; but whenever I could look round, the same spectacle met my eye-aunt Dunk keeping a strict watch, heaping more and more heavy weights upon his legs, forcibly holding down his head with a heavy hand, and pouring brandy down his throat. Occasionally he made frantic efforts to free himself from the double danger of choking and of being smothered, and she afterwards remarked to me that she was lucky in meeting such a case; it must have been an exceptional one, as she had never read of convulsions in sea-sickness.

When we arrived at Boulogne, the friend came forward, and laughingly thanking aunt Dunk for her kindness, led off the unhappy victim more dead than alive, and presenting a most deplorable aspect.

CHAPTER IV.

AUNT DUNK ABROAD.

I Do not know how we got to the hotel, or to bed, for aunt Dunk's French comprised some half-dozen words, and my own had breathed no air but that of our schoolroom. I know that next day we found we had taken rooms and ordered breakfast for a party of twelve instead of two, and that we had to pay for the mistake.

Aunt Dunk was much surprised to find that both tea and coffee were known commodities, and that our stores, for which she had had to pay largely at the douane, were not regarded more favourably at the French hotel than at the Pavilion. Having some idea of going on to make a long stay in Rome, she thought it best to husband the groceries, and to put up with the national fare at present. Of course neither tea nor coffee could be as good as what we had brought from Crippleton.

After some sleep, we rose, breakfasted, and sallied forth for a walk, aunt Dunk, Crow, and myself; and not knowing where to go, we soon lost ourselves in a nest of most unpleasing streets. The first woman we met gave us a cheerful Bon jour,' which my aunt returned somewhat doubtingly, and then shading her eyes with her hand, turned to look after her.

'Dear me, I ought to know that woman, I suppose, but her face seems strange to me. Very odd.'

We met another and another, and all greeted us in the same manner. A sudden thought struck aunt Dunk. Why, they must be Crippleton girls, married and settled here. They know me of course by sight, though I don't know them. Very odd if I find a Crippleton colony out here, Jane.' But as the greetings continued, she grew puzzled. I can't have forgotten so many faces, Jane, and they wouldn't all remember me. I can't make it out at all.'

I suggested that civility might be the custom of the country.

'Nonsense, child! Do you suppose they'd be fools enough to go curtseying to all strangers, and in a seaport town too, where strangers are as plentiful as pins? I know what it is. It's the name. Your uncle's ancestors came from Holland, and I daresay some popped over here. Dunk is a name well enough known over the sea. Depend upon it they've seen it on our boxes, or maybe it's in the paper already.'

For a person given to theories, to using long words and discoursing upon woman's rights, aunt Dunk was singularly simple-minded, and I was in a state of constant surprise at her naïve views of our surroundings. It was necessary to bear in mind how many years she had passed at Dunk Marsh.

In the afternoon she elected to go for a drive, and as the waiter spoke English, we were able to make known to the driver the first place we wished to visit-a chemist's shop. We did not get out. A man came to the door, and my aunt gave him a prescription to be made up. He retreated, and we sat still, expecting the carriage

to go on. In vain.

Tell him to go on,' said aunt Dunk; and Crow, putting her head out of the window, gave the order in excellent English. In vain. Aunt Dunk herself now made the attempt. She thrust her head out of the right-hand window, and ejaculated in a loud voice, 'Cochon, cont! In vain. The coachman sat doggedly still, either enjoying the joke or not recognising as his own the somewhat peculiar appellation. Aunt Dunk now tried the other window, with another loud Vont, cochon!' Still in vain; and we might have passed hours in this unpleasant position, had not our friends of the Pavilion suddenly appeared on the scene.

'Aunt Dunk in difficulties!' exclaimed my aunt's ci-devant victim, darting forward. Can I in gratitude be of any service to the best of relatives ?'

So you are out again,' said aunt Dunk, eyeing him professionally. How d'ye feel? Any pains about you? System shaken?' Fearfully, aunt, fearfully. I doubt if I shall ever entirely recover from the effects of that voyage.'

'Ay, ay, you were pretty bad. I don't know what you would have done without me. What you want now is a tonic.

to me at ten to-morrow and I'll give you one.'

Come up

At that precise moment our eccentric driver took it into his head to start off at a rapid trot, probably urged thereto by a vigorous poke from the umbrella of the worthy Crow, whose horror of our new acquaintance was unbounded. Aunt Dunk had only time to shout

out the name of her hotel.

The next day was Sunday, and at an early hour aunt Dunk, dressed in her best, was seated at the window, ready to make her observations on men and things, and guarded on each side by her