Thomas was seated in the drawing-room, which looked cold and rather cheerless; for no company was expected, and I presume Miss Hubbard did not care for color, save as reflected from her guests, seeing she had all her furniture in pinafores. How little some rich people know how to inherit the earth! The good things of it they only uncover when they can _make_, not _receive_, a show. My dear reader--No, I will not take a liberty to which I have no right; for perhaps were he to see me he would not like me, and possibly were I to meet him I should not like him: I will rather say _My Reader_, without the impertinence or the pledge of an adjective--have a little patience while I paint Miss Hubbard just with the feather-end of my pen. I shall not be long about it. Thomas sat in the drawing-room, I say, feeling vacant, for he was only waiting, not expecting, when the door opened, and in came a fashionable girl--rather tall, handsome, bright-eyed, well-dressed, and yet--What was it that Thomas did not like about her? Was it that she was dressed in the extreme of the fashion? I will not go on to say what the fashion was, for before I had finished writing it, it would have ceased to be the fashion; and I will not paint my picture _knowingly_ with colors that must fade the moment they are laid on. To be sure she had ridden the fashion till it was only fit for the knacker's yard; but she soon made him forget that, for she was clever, pleasant, fast--which means affectedly unrefined, only her affectation did no violence to fact--and altogether amusing. I believe what Thomas did not like about her at first was just all wherein she differed from Lucy. Yet he could not help being taken with her; and when his father and Sir Jonathan came into the room, the two were talking like a sewing-machine. "Laura, my dear," said the knight, "I have prevailed on Mr. Worboise to spend the day with us. You have no engagement, I believe?" "Fortunately, I have not, papa." "Well, I'll just give orders about dinner, and then I'll take our friends about the place. I want to show them my new stable. You had better come with us." [Illustration: "SHE WAS CLEVER, PLEASANT, FAST--"]