"Will you be so good, Lady Alice Redcliffe, as to give me the key of my bed-room?" To which Lady Alice, without opening her eyes, and with her hands mildly clasped, in the fashion of a mediæval monument, over her breast, meekly and firmly made answer-- "If you mean the key of the Window dressing-room, Jane, I have already told your maid that I mean to _keep_ it!" "And I'll not leave the room till I get it," cried Lady Jane, standing fiercely beside the monument. "Then you'll not leave the room to-night, Jane," replied the statuesque sufferer on the bed. "We shall _see_ that. Once more, will you give me my key or not?" "The key of my dressing-room door is in my possession, and I mean to keep it," repeated the old lady, with a provoking mildness. "You shan't, madam--you'll do no such thing. You shall give up the key you have stolen. I'll lose my life but I'll make you." "Jane, Jane," said the old lady, "you are sadly changed for the worse since last I saw you." "And if _you're_ not, it's only because there was no room for it. Sadly changed indeed--very true. I don't suffer you to bully me as you used at Wardlock." "May Heaven forgive and pardon you!" ejaculated the old lady, with great severity, rising perpendicularly and raising both her eyes and hands. "Keep your prayers for yourself, madam, and give me my key," demanded the incensed young lady. "I'll do no such thing; I'll do as I said; and I'll pray how I please, ma'am," retorted the suppliant, fiercely. "Your prayers don't signify twopence. You've the temper of a fiend, as all the world knows; and no one can live in the same house with you," rejoined Lady Jane. "That's a wicked lie: my servants live all their days with me." "Because they know no one else would take them. But you've the temper of a fury. You haven't a friend left, and everyone hates you." "Oh! oh! oh!" moaned Lady Alice, sinking back, with her hand pressed to her heart piteously, and closing her eyes, as she recollected how ill she was. "Ho! dear me!" exclaimed Lady Jane, in high disdain. "Had not you better restore my key before you die, old lady?" "Jane!" exclaimed Lady Alice, recovering in an instant, "have you no feeling--you know the state I'm in; and you're bent on killing me with your unfeeling brutality?" "You're perfectly well, ma'am, and you look it. I wish I was half as strong; you oblige me to come all this way, this bitter night, you odious old woman." "I see how it is, and why you want the key. A very little more, and I'll write to General Lennox." "Do; and he'll horsewhip you." Lady Jane herself was a little stunned at this speech, when she heard it from her own lips; and I think would have recalled it. "Thank you, Jane; I hope you'll _remember_ that. Horsewhip me! No doubt you wish it; but General Lennox is a gentleman, I hope, _although_ he has married you; and I don't suppose he would murder a miserable old woman to gratify you."