"Fresh tea, Jones, directly," said Lady Penelope, and led her passive friend to her own corner, as she was pleased to call the recess, in which she held her little court--ladies and gentlemen curtsying and bowing as she passed; to which civilities the new guest made no more return, than the most ordinary politeness rendered unavoidable. Lady Binks did not rise to receive her, but sat upright in her chair, and bent her head very stiffly; a courtesy which Miss Mowbray returned in the same stately manner, without farther greeting on either side. "Now, wha can that be, Doctor?" said the Widow Blower--"mind ye have promised to tell me all about the grand folk--wha can that be that Leddy Penelope hauds such a racket wi'?--and what for does she come wi' a habit and a beaver-hat, when we are a' (a glance at her own gown) in our silks and satins?" "To tell you who she is, my dear Mrs. Blower, is very easy," said the officious Doctor. "She is Miss Clara Mowbray, sister to the Lord of the Manor--the gentleman who wears the green coat, with an arrow on the cape. To tell why she wears that habit, or does any thing else, would be rather beyond doctor's skill. Truth is, I have always thought she was a little--a very little--touched--call it nerves--hypochondria--or what you will." "Lord help us, puir thing!" said the compassionate widow.--"And troth it looks like it. But it's a shame to let her go loose, Doctor--she might hurt hersell, or somebody. See, she has ta'en the knife!--O, it's only to cut a shave of the diet-loaf. She winna let the powder-monkey of a boy help her. There's judgment in that though, Doctor, for she can cut thick or thin as she likes.--Dear me! she has not taken mair than a crumb, than ane would pit between the wires of a canary-bird's cage, after all.--I wish she would lift up that lang veil, or put off that riding-skirt, Doctor. She should really be showed the regulations, Doctor Kickelshin." "She cares about no rules we can make, Mrs. Blower," said the Doctor; "and her brother's will and pleasure, and Lady Penelope's whim of indulging her, carry her through in every thing. They should take advice on her case." "Ay, truly, it's time to take advice, when young creatures like her caper in amang dressed leddies, just as if they were come from scampering on Leith sands.--Such a wark as my leddy makes wi' her, Doctor! Ye would think they were baith fools of a feather." "They might have flown on one wing, for what I know," said Dr. Quackleben; "but there was early and sound advice taken in Lady Penelope's case. My friend, the late Earl of Featherhead, was a man of judgment--did little in his family but by rule of medicine--so that, what with the waters, and what with my own care, Lady Penelope is only freakish--fanciful--that's all--and her quality bears it out--the peccant principle might have broken out under other treatment."