While he was speaking, I had my eye on Miss Sticker. Thanks to the luncheon which was on the table, she was physically incapable of "conversing" while our reverend friend was telling his humorous little anecdote. Just as he had done, and just as the editor of the newspaper was taking up the subject, she finished her chicken, and turned round from the table. "Cash down, my dear sir, as you say," continued the editor. "You exactly describe our great principle of action in the Press. Some of the most extraordinary and amusing things happen with subscribers to newspapers----" "Ah, the Press!" burst in Miss Sticker, beginning to converse. "What a wonderful engine! and how grateful we ought to feel when we get the paper so regularly every morning at breakfast. The only question is--at least, many people think so--I mean with regard to the Press, the only question is whether it ought to be----" Here Miss Sticker lost the next word, and all the company had to look for it. "With regard to the Press, the only question is, whether it ought to be----O, dear, dear, dear me!" cried Miss Sticker, lifting both her hands in despair, "what is the word?" "Cheaper?" suggested our reverend friend. "Hang it, ma'am! it can hardly be that, when it is down to a penny already." "O no; not cheaper," said Miss Sticker. "More independent?" inquired the editor. "If you mean that, I defy anybody to find more fearless exposures of corruption----" "No, no!" cried Miss Sticker, in an agony of polite confusion. "I didn't mean that. More independent wasn't the word." "Better printed?" suggested the engineer. "On better paper?" added my aunt. "It can't be done--if you refer to the cheap press--it can't be done for the money," interposed the editor, irritably. "O, but that's not it!" continued Miss Sticker, wringing her bony fingers, with horrid black mittens on them. "I didn't mean to say better printed, or better paper. It was one word I meant, not two.--With regard to the Press," pursued Miss Sticker, repeating her own ridiculous words carefully, as an aid to memory, "the only question is, whether it ought to be----Bless my heart, how extraordinary! Well, well, never mind: I'm quite shocked, and ashamed of myself. Pray go on talking, and don't notice me." It was all very well to say, Go on talking; but the editor's amusing story about subscribers to newspapers, had been, by this time, fatally interrupted. As usual, Miss Sticker had stopped us in full flow. The engineer considerately broke the silence by starting another subject.