[3] "The vapors" were pre-eminently the fashionable malady of the reign of Queen Anne. The name answered to the sensation now known as _ennui_: but doubtless, as Miss Strickland suggests in her "Lives of the Queens of England," it was frequently used when its victim was suffering from nothing more remarkable or novel than a bad temper. IV. MY LADY INGRAM. "She had the low voice of your English dames, Unused, it seems, to need rise half a note To catch attention,--and their quiet mood, As if they lived too high above the earth For that to put them out in anything: So gentle, because verily so proud; So wary and afraid of hurting you, By no means that you are not really vile, But that they would not touch you with their foot To push you to your place; so self-possessed, Yet gracious and conciliating, it takes An effort in their presence to speak truth: You know the sort of woman,--brilliant stuff, And out of nature." ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. The Tories were in power in the winter of 1711-12. The Duke of Marlborough's credit at home had long been sinking, and he was now almost at the lowest point in the Queen's favor. On that very New Year's Day of which I have spoken, for the first time in the annals of England, a Ministry had endeavored to swamp the House of Lords by a wholesale creation of Peers. Politically speaking, Squire Passmore was anything but happy, for he was a fervent Whig. He sat in the parlor that morning, inveighing angrily against the Earl of Oxford and all who followed or agreed with him--the Queen herself of course excepted--for the edification of Madam Passmore--who was calmly knotting--Isabella, and Celia. "'Tis pity, John," said Madam Passmore, quietly, "that you have no Tories to list you." "I wish I had--the scoundrels!" exclaimed the Squire. "O Mother!" cried Isabella, rising hurriedly from her seat in the window, "sure here is some visitor of quality. There is a carriage at the front door with arms on the panels." "What arms?" asked her father. "I don't understand anything about arms," said Isabella, "and one of the coats I cannot see rightly. The one nearer here is all cut up into little squares, and in one part there is a dog on his hind legs, and in another a pair of yellow balls." The Squire came to the window to see for himself. "Dog! balls!" cried he. "A lion rampant and bezants--the goose!" "Well, Father, I told you I did not understand it!" remonstrated Isabella, in an injured tone. "Madam, my Lady Ingram!" announced Robert, in a voice of great importance. The Squire turned round directly, and offered his hand to conduct the visitor to a seat, like a well-bred gentleman of his day,--Madam Passmore rising to receive her, and her daughters of course following her example.