* * * * * It had been my Lady Kilcroney’s intention to keep her cherished little Denis in his cot, for the space of at least a day, for indeed there was more than one red mark on the satin of his small, plump body, and Kitty vowed it was of a piece with the rest of my Lord’s brutality to declare that those who leave their own homes for the discomforts of lodgings must expect the occasional flea. But on receipt of a letter sent round by my Lady Flora’s woman, she promptly altered her plans, and ordered the protesting cherub to be arrayed in his best robe-coat covered with fine muslin, and his white satin hat with feathers. My Lord, as soon as his infant’s roars had been soothed by candies, picked up the letter which Kitty had dropped on the floor in her hurried exit to her bed-chamber; and, while his Lady was alternately pealing at her bell and shouting for Lydia, without compunction read it. “_My Dearest Lady Kilcroney: ’Tis all arranged. I consider my freedom well purchased at the price of the rose-point flounce, and the service to a friend, no less, by the trimmings to match. Her Majesty received me in her closet last evening, and the matter was settled quick. I must confess, dearest Kitty, with all the_ veneration _and_ love (these words were heavily underlined) _that I cherish for her August Person, I did feel it hard to find that my poor feet were represented as the dropsy. Dropsy, my love. And I but turned of thirty! ‘You should have warned me,’ said Her Majesty, ‘that you were suffering from a disease.’ ‘Ma’am,’ said I, ‘if disease there is’--(I was afraid to deny it, dear Kitty, lest the fetters should not be struck off my aching ankles)--‘’twas contracted in Your Majesty’s service.’ And now if my Kilcroney has a taste for gilded slavery (though there’s less gilding than you would believe), let her be at the entrance of the pump room, to receive Her Majesty at the head of the other lady visitors, on her first visit thither this very morning at eleven o’clock. The Gentlemen-in-Waiting are informing the other notabilities of the town, and Her Majesty is prepared for the little ceremony which she desires shall have the appearance of an Impromptu, it being her wish to avoid state during the Royal Visit and not to be incommoded by the crowd. If your little Denis were to offer a bunch of roses, it would, I think, please the Queen, who likes to see ladies occupied of their children and is interested in any who are about the age of the Princess Amelia. From what Mrs. Schwellenberg--oh! Kitty, to think of that toad festooned about with my lace--hath wrote to me (thank God we have left the_ frog-fancier _behind at Windsor) I understand you can consider the appointment as good as made----_”