"Oh! I cannot afford to buy a bonnet; that would be only half-and-half, a mere vulgar, shabby-genteel, cockney kind of a maid-servant!" "You will be found out by your tapering waist and large bosom." "Why, what is the matter with it, Sir John? Is it not very decently covered by this smart, coloured handkerchief?" "Yes; but it's all too pretty, and your stays are too well made." Julia's maid-servant, who had not recognised me as I flew past her up the stairs, now entered the room, with a message from my hackney-coachman, who was waiting at the door. "The coachman, marm, desires me to tell the young woman that he shall expect another sixpence if she does not come down directly." "Oh laws a mighty! and here I hasn't a got a sixpence in the world more than what's tied up here in this here bag, on purpose for to pay my fare to Oxford," said I, holding up a small red bag. Julia's maid-servant looked in my face, and seeing everybody ready to laugh, found it impossible to resist joining them. "Why, the Lord defend me! Miss Harriette, is it really you?" she asked, opening her eyes as wide as possible. "You see, Sir John, the delicacy of my shape has not stood the least in my way with the coachman, who did not discover the air noble under this costume! But I must be off directly." "Good-bye! God bless you; mind you write to me directly, and tell me everything that happens to you," said Fanny. They all gave me a kiss round, for the form of kissing a woman in blue stockings and a check-apron, and I was soon seated in the stage-coach, which was being loaded at the door of the _Green Man and Still,_ or as the Frenchman dated his letter, _Chez l'Homme Vert et Tranquil._ "You're not apt to be sick, are you, my dear?" inquired a fat-faced merry-looking man, with a red handkerchief tied over his chin, who had already, with a lady whom I fancied might be his wife, taken possession of the two best seats. I assured them that I was a very good traveller. "Because, my dear, you see, many people can't ride backwards; and there's Mrs. Hodson my wife as is one of them." "Oh; the young woman is not particler, I dare say," said Mrs. Hodson, with becoming reserve. In short, not altogether liking the words "my dear," as they had been applied to me by her husband, she thought it monstrous vulgar! A lady, in a green habit, who was standing near the coach door, now vowed and declared her travelling basket should be taken out of the boot where it had been thrown by mistake, before she would take her seat. The coachman in vain assured her it was perfectly safe. "Don't tell me about its safety," cried the angry lady, "I know what your care of parcels is before to-day." "Come, come, my good lady," said Mr. Hodson, whom I recognised as a London shoemaker of some celebrity, "come, come, ma'am, your thingumbobs will be quite safe. Don t keep three inside passengers waiting, at a nonplush, for these here trifles!"