“A very amusing story is told,” continued Uncle Thomas, “of the lady of a worthy citizen, who, by a laudable attention to business, had accumulated a considerable fortune, and retired to the enjoyment of a nice villa not a hundred miles from Hampstead. It happened that the lady had a daughter by a former marriage; and, as her great desire was to see the girl well settled in life, she spared neither pains nor expense to effect her object. The old lady was moreover extremely parsimonious in her family arrangements; her ruling maxim being to save all she could in secret in order to be better able to spare no expense in public, so as to pass off for richer than she really was. She accordingly daily furnished her husband’s table with the humblest fare—to which the goodnatured old gentleman submitted without a murmur. One of the good lady’s grand economical schemes was the establishment of a piggery; and on one occasion having made a very profitable sale to a butcher of some half-a-dozen of the fatted inhabitants of her stye, that she might make the most of every thing, she supplied the table with little else than fried pig’s liver as long as it lasted. As the worthy citizen was generally pretty ready for his dinner on his return from his forenoon’s walk, the Parrot often heard and joined in the call which the master’s arrival produced to ‘make haste to bring the pig’s liver,’ which the lady vociferated over the stair to Rebecca, her only domestic, a great red-cheeked, raw-boned girl, fresh from the country. In the midst of these daily commons, the good lady was sparing no expense in preparing for a grand dinner which she was about to give. By some means or other she and her daughter had become acquainted with a young man of quality, who appeared to have fallen in love with the young lady. Speculations and plots followed, and with the decision of an able general, the fond mother resolved to complete her daughter’s conquest by a bold stroke. The young gentleman having ridden out that way with two of his fashionable companions, she lost not a moment in asking them all to what she called a family dinner at the villa, on an early day, which she named. Her invitation having been accepted, the choicest viands and the finest wines were provided, and a French cook and a powdered waiter were procured, and a quantity of plate was hired for the occasion.