Laying down the paper, Miss Stivergill lifted up her eyes and hands, pursed her mouth, and gave vent to a most unladylike whistle! She had barely terminated this musical performance, and recovered the serenity of her aspect, when Miss Lillycrop burst in upon her with unwonted haste and excitement. "My darling Maria!" she exclaimed, breathlessly, flinging her bonnet on a chair and seizing both the hands of her friend, "I am _so_ glad you're at home. It's _such_ an age since I saw you! I came out by the early train on purpose to tell you. I hardly know where to begin. Oh! I'm _so_ glad!" "You're not going to be married?" interrupted Miss Stivergill, whose stern calmness deepened as her friend's excitement increased. "Married? oh no! Ridiculous! but I think I'm going deranged." "That is impossible," returned Miss Stivergill, "You have been deranged ever since I knew you. If there is any change in your condition it can only be an access of the malady. Besides, there is no particular cause for joy in that. Have you no more interesting news to give me?" "More interesting news!" echoed Miss Lillycrop, sitting down on her bonnet, "of course I have. Now, just listen: Peter Pax--of the firm of Blurt, Pax, Jiggs, and Company, Antiquarians, Bird-Stuffers, Mechanists, Stamp-Collectors, and I don't know what else besides, to the Queen--is going to be married to--whom do you think?" "The Queen of Sheba," replied Miss Stivergill, folding her hands on her lap with a placid smile. "To--Tottie Bones!" said Miss Lillycrop, with an excited movement that ground some of her bonnet to straw-powder. Miss Stivergill did not raise her eyes or whistle at this. She merely put her head a little on one side and smiled. "I knew it, my dear--at least I felt sure it would come to this, though it is sooner than I expected. It is not written anywhere, I believe, that a boy may not marry a baby, nevertheless--" "But she's not a baby," broke in Miss Lillycrop. "Tottie is seventeen now, and Pax is twenty-four. But this is not the half of what I have to tell you. Ever since Pax was taken into partnership by Mr Enoch Blurt the business has prospered, as you are aware, and our active little friend has added all kinds of branches to it--such as the preparation and sale of entomological, and ichthyological, and other -ological specimens, and the mechanical parts of toy-engines; and that lad Jiggs has turned out such a splendid expounder of all these things, that the shop has become a sort of terrestrial heaven for boys. And dear old Fred Blurt has begun to recover under the influence of success, so that he is now able to get out frequently in a wheel-chair. But the strangest news of all is that Mister Enoch Blurt got a new baby--a girl--and recovered his diamonds on the self-same day!" "Indeed!" said Miss Stivergill, beginning to be influenced by these surprising revelations.