After much disquietude, matters were arranged once more, and the solo was achieved; but in the midst of the concluding movement, which was very brilliant, and calculated to make a striking impression in the winding up, Miss Campion uttered a piercing shriek, the effect of which was ludicrous in the extreme, mingling as it did with the full harmony, and vociferated, “a bee, a bee!” and a bee there certainly _was_, crawling up the leg of the piano-forte, so weak and so drowsy after the cold weather, that the last of its _intentions_, poor thing, seemed to be to inflict the slightest injury on any one. Frederick put the obnoxious insect out of the window, but Lady Campion was now inexorable: she lost all control over looks and manner, which seemed to affect every one, except the person to whom they were directed; and, quite shocked by the scene, I requested that we might take our departure, which we did without delay, leaving such a domestic _broil_ as I had then witnessed for the first time, to cool as it might. Lord Thornborough handed me to the carriage, and with an unfeeling “Hah! hah! hah!” said, Miss Douglas, “you have come in for a thunder-storm to-day. Her ladyship was rather sublime; don’t you think so?” I was too much disgusted to reply, and, contenting myself with a passing bow, was happy to find myself on the high road to Marsden. Am I sure that my senses do not deceive me, and that such things are? Is the sacred relationship of parent and child _out of fashion_? And is it possible, that while a daughter forgets the respect due to a mother, mothers have forgotten to respect themselves? I am not surprised now, when I hear Mr. Otway and Mr. Bolton speak of the present _times_, and compare them with the period immediately preceding the Revolution in France. I heard them agree a day or two ago in drawing the parallel with mournful fidelity, and finding in the frightful demoralization of continental manners, which is making, they said, rapid progress in these countries, but too certain a prognostic of the fate that will follow, if the tide be not arrested, of which there seems but little hope. If I had staid at home I should never have known these things; and however one may detest, I do not feel that we can become familiar with what is wrong, without being the worse for it.