A BALL AT STANMORE, AND WHAT TOOK PLACE AT IT. Mr. Sleech and his family were enjoying their possession of Stanmore. He had begun to cut down the trees which he and his son had marked, and as many of them were very fine and old, he was delighted to find that they would fetch the full amount he had anticipated. This encouraged him to proceed further. "I have often heard that trees about houses are not wholesome," he observed. "The more space we can clear away the better, and really a five-pound note to my mind is better than an old tree, with its boughs spreading far and wide over the ground, and shutting out the sunlight. Nothing will grow under old trees except fungi, and the ground may be much better occupied." A sufficient time had now elapsed, in the opinion of Mr. Sleech, since the death of Colonel Everard, his predecessor, to allow him to give a party at Stanmore without impropriety. The Misses Sleech were busily employed in sending out invitations. They asked everybody, whether they had called or not. "The chances are they will come," they observed, "and it will not do to be too particular." They were rather surprised to find that several of the principal families in the neighbourhood declined. However, their rooms were sure to be filled, there was no doubt of that. The foreign officers had no scruple about coming, and at a distance there were several families with whom Mr. Sleech was more or less acquainted, who would be glad to accept the invitation. Miss Sleech, Miss Anna Maria Sleech, and Miss Martha, who were out, were very anxious to have their brother Silas. They agreed to write to get him down. They could not ask Mr. Coppinger to allow him to come merely for the sake of a ball; they therefore begged their father from his fertile brain to invent an excuse, which that gentleman had no scruple whatever in doing. The result of that letter has been seen. At the hour he was expected to arrive, the carriage was sent over to meet the coach, but neither in the inside nor on the out was Silas Sleech to be seen. "Of course he will come to-morrow in plenty of time for the ball," observed his sisters, consoling themselves. Old Mr. Sleech, however, wanted his son's advice and assistance. The morning before the intended _fete_, when workmen were busy in different parts of the house preparing the rooms, placing tents outside the windows, and arranging flowers and taking up the carpets, a carriage drove up to the door. A gentleman stepped out of it in a naval undress. He looked about him with an air of mute astonishment. "Who is here? what is taking place?" he asked of the servant who opened the door. "Why, we are going to have a ball to-night," was the answer. "Who do you want to see?" "A ball!" exclaimed the stranger. "My aunt and daughter giving a ball! Has Colonel Everard so completely recovered?"