Cometh Up As A Flower

another philanthropic old woman, on the subject of the Shoe Black Brigade. As I come in, she turns round and utters an exclamation of surprise, "Come down after all! So glad! Your sister gave us such a sad account of you, that we were afraid we were going to lose you for all the evening; there does not seem much the matter now, does there?" patting my cheek as she would have patted the cheek of the Hottentot Venus, if Sir Hugh had seen fit to throw his Sultanic Majesty's pocket-handkerchief to her.

"You are quite a heroine, my dear!" says Lady Capel kindly, "we are all dying to hear your version of this unlucky contretemps!"

"Men are so stupid!" cries the sharp young lady, whose name is Miss Gifford, coming over from the other side of the room, "they never know how to tell a story; they always leave out all the details, which are the most important parts."

"It must have been a great shock, and--very embarrassing," says Miss Seymour, in that whiny-piny voice, with which an inscru