"Was the Earl of Fife in the gardens?" she inquired, the moment I entered my dressing-room. The next evening, behold myself and Miss Higgins seated on the sofa before our tea-table, in expectation of Lord Fife. Miss Higgins's new cap would have improved her beauty, had she not diminished its lustre by sitting up all night to finish it; but her fine hair, which was her solitary charm, was suffered to flow over her neck and shoulders in graceful, childish negligence. As for me, the part of second fiddle being altogether new to me, I took the liberty of appearing in my morning dress. Nine was the hour named by Lord Fife, and Miss Higgins had taken out her old-fashioned French watch at least twenty times since she entered the drawing-room, when the house-clock struck that wished-for and lagging hour. "Is his lordship punctual generally speaking, pray, ma'am?" "Quite the reverse, I believe," said I, half asleep. "You have a good heart, I know, ma'am, and we females ought naturally to assist each other in all our little peccadillos," remarked my companion. "Well?" "Why, ma'am, I am going to ask your advice, who are better acquainted with his lordship's tastes than I am. I was thinking now, that this little netting-box is pretty and lady-like! Shall I be netting a purse, or will it have a better effect to put on my gloves and be doing nothing?" Before I could answer this deep question my footman entered the room with a letter, sealed with a large coronet, and told me that a servant waited below for an answer. "I will ring when it is ready, James," said I, opening the letter. "It is an excuse from the Earl of Fife!" said Miss Eliza Higgins, growing whiter than her pearl powder. Indignation kept me silent after reading the following impertinent letter from the Marquis of Sligo, to whom I had only been presented the day before. "MY DEAR MISS WILSON,--Will you be so condescending as to allow me to pass this evening alone with you after Lord Lansdowne's party? "SLIGO." I had not been so enraged for several years! I rang my bell with such violence that I frightened Miss Eliza Higgins out of the very little wit she possessed. "Who waits?" said I to James. "A servant in livery," was the answer. "Send him up to me." A well-bred servant, in a cocked hat and dashing livery entered my room, with many bows. "Here is some mistake," said I, presenting him the unsealed and unfolded letter of Lord Sligo. "This letter could not be meant for me, to whom his lordship was only presented yesterday. Take it back, young man, and say from me, that I request he will be careful how he misdirects his letters in future; an accident which is no doubt caused by his writing after dinner." The man bowed low, and took away the open communication with him. "The earl may yet arrive then?" observed Miss Eliza Higgins, recovered herself.