of the force. In fact you can't be good friends with a man who is able to take you up at any moment. In this respect policemen are like the National Guards in Paris in 1871. They have no friends. You might as well pull the Chief Justice of England by the beard as take any liberty with a policeman; and yet what is the governess in the family but a worse policeman? There the wretched being is, between the servants on the one side and the family on the other. Sometimes the servants won't wait on her; and once there was a governess who was found starved to death because none of the domestics, male or female, would demean' themselves, as they termed it, by taking up her meals to the schoolroom. On the other hand, if she is treated as one of the family, as the lady who is to bring up your children like ladies ought to be, she is a perpetual bore, and everything like confidential conversation between husband and wife. becomes impossible. How many secrets would Brown have told his wife, if Miss Parker had not come in just at that very moment? And how much gossip would not Mrs. Brown have repeated to her husband at or after dinner, unless the same lady had been seated at the side of the table; staring them in the face? Talk of a skeleton in a cupboard in every family! a governess is a skeleton out of

it.

Three are proverbially no company; but what shall we call a company of three-two of whom are husband and wife, and the third a governess? The result generally is, that a governess is not treated as one of the family; and then in what a painful position is the family placed, knowing that a very estimable person, to whom they are mainly indebted for their education, so far as the daughters are concerned, is condemned by their own selfishness and love of ease to perpetual solitary confinement ?

Happy therefore, and thrice happy, were the Carlton family, inasmuch as the daughters were beyond the age of governesses, and that Sir Thomas and Lady Carlton were no longer compelled to keep a resident policeman in petticoats.

'Well, girls,' said Lady Carlton, it is all settled. I have persuaded your father to have a few friends down here on the 1st of June, and I have asked-'

Who, who, mamma ?' exclaimed both the young ladies at once. 'Don't be so impatient. No one is coming that you care for very much. No young ladies, I mean.'

'Yes,' said Florence, the elder, and livelier, and bolder of the two; but then there are other persons than young ladies in the

world.'

6

Very true,' answered her mother. There are old men and women, and men and women of middle age, and women who are neither very old nor very young; and so we have begun by asking Lady Sweetapple.'

'Dear Lady Sweetapple!' said Alice. 'I am so fond of her!'

'More than I am,' burst out Florence. I don't like her. She is what I call a flirt; and besides, she takes away my partners, and that I call unfair in a widow.'

'O, Florry!' said Alice, how can you say such horrid things? Why shouldn't young widows dance if they like it? I am sure you never lost a partner on account of Lady Sweetapple.'

'I'm not so sure of that,' said her sister; but even if I don't, I say again it isn't fair in a widow who has had what I call her chance, to return to unmarried life, as it were, and, if you must have it, to poach on the preserves of young ladies.'

'I suppose, then,' said Lady Carlton, you would banish poor Lady Sweetapple to the region of real preserves, and condemn her to endless jam and jelly making, as ladies who had had their chance, as you call it, in ancient days used to spend their widowed lives. But I rather agree with Alice, and do not at all see why young widows like Lady Sweetapple should not dance, provided they dance well, and are attractive enough to get partners.'

'Well, mamma,' said the forward Florry, it is no use arguing the matter when you and Alice are agreed. The fact is, you both are much fonder of Lady Sweetapple than I am, or shall ever be. When Alice knows more of the world, and has seen her nicest partners carried off after supper by that odious Lady Sweetapple, she won't like her any better than I.'

'Well, let us drop Lady Sweetapple,' said Lady Carlton, and eat our luncheon in peace and charity with all men and women.' 'I wish that were always so easy, mamma,' said Florry. 'Dear me, what vexations there are in life!'

'Dreadful, my dear,' said her mother with a laugh. Two seasons, or rather one and a half, have turned you into a moralist, as well as the asserter of young ladies' rights against widows and married women.'

'Don't tease poor Florry, mamma,' said Alice; but do tell us who is coming besides Lady Sweetapple.'

Here is the list,' said Lady Carlton. Mr. and Mrs. Marjoram, Mr. Beeswing, Colonel and Mrs. Barker, Edward Vernon and Harry Fortescue, and, I forgot, Count Pantouffles.'

'Well, I must say,' said Florry, the company improves as it goes on. As for Mr. and Mrs. Marjoram, I shall get on very well. with them. They never quarrel except with themselves; and if you can contrive to keep them apart and out of one another's sight the whole time they are here, no doubt they will be very happy, and go away declaring they have had a charming visit. Mrs. Barker is a good creature. I only wish she had studied the harmony of colours a little more. Nor is the Colonel bad company till he begins to tell one of his Indian stories. Mr. Beeswing is always delightful. I, for one, am glad he is coming, if for no other reason than

that I am sure he hates Lady Sweetapple. I do so hope he will make some fun out of her. As for the two others, we all know that Alice likes Edward Vernon; and as for me, why, I suppose I must

put up with Harry.'

O, Florry!' said Alice through a very dawn of blushes; 'how can you go on saying that I like Edward Vernon, when I have scarcely seen him half a dozen times in my life?'

'Never mind, darling, what I say,' said Florry. Then you don't like Edward; and Lady Sweetapple, that she-wolf in widow's weeds, has your perfect leave to carry him off if she can. As for only seeing Edward Vernon half a dozen times, that's a story I never expected to hear from a little woman usually so truthful. You have seen him a dozen times at least. And again, I should like to know what has become of that creature of our earliest imaginations-Love at first sight? What has become of Cupid in that shape? Does he never come down like a god, and take a strong and stubborn heart by storm in the twinkling of an eye? Ah! I see, he fled from earth when we all became so selfish and matterof-fact.'

Who is teasing now ?' said Lady Carlton, infinitely amused at the impetuous Florry's attack on the bashful Alice. 'But what do you mean by putting up with Harry? I always thought Harry Fortescue was the most charming young man of the present time.'

'So he is,' said Florry; and I can safely say so because we are good friends and nothing more. To my mind, the great charm of Harry Fortescue is, that he never makes love. All he seems to care about is to enjoy himself as much as he can, and to throw himself with heart and soul into the amusement of the hour. I never saw any one so earnest in his pleasure; it is pleasure for pleasure's sake, and not pleasure for the sake of love-making.'

'Yes, Florry,' cried Alice; and that's just what dear Miss Stokes used to say was so awful in a young person's life—“the reckless pursuit of pleasure." Don't you remember how she used to warn us against amusement and pleasure except as a means to a great end?'

All stuff and nonsense, Alice: and let me tell you, if you go on bringing Miss Stokes to witness against me, I won't sleep in the same room with you. No! you sha'n't ever see me do my backhair. I won't walk with you nor sit next you at church. No! Thank Heaven, the rule of Miss Stokes in this house came to an end when she gave you her last lesson and papa settled a pension on her.'

'Come, Florence,' said Lady Carlton, I can't let you abuse poor Miss Stokes, to whom both you and Alice owe so much. No doubt you are both right: she certainly, when she warned you both against the reckless pursuit of pleasure; and you, in your turn,