"Yes," continued Mrs. Collum, severely; "surely there are better topics for the Sabbath than--than a dancing soldier!" "Mr. Tweddle knows why I stopped myself," said Bella. "But there, I won't tell of you--not now, at all events; so don't look like that at me!" "There, Bella, that'll do," said her _fiance_, suddenly awakening to the fact that she was trying to make herself disagreeable, and perhaps feeling slightly ashamed of her. "James! I know what to say and what to leave unsaid, without tellings from you; thanks all the same. You needn't fear my saying a word about Mr. Tweddle and Ada--la, now, if I haven't gone and said it! What a stupid I am to run on so!" "_Drop_ it, Bella! Do you hear? That's enough," growled Jauncy. Leander sat silent; he did not attempt again to turn the conversation: he knew better. Matilda seemed perfectly calm, and certainly showed no surface curiosity; but he feared that her mother intended to require explanations. Miss Tweddle came in here with the original remark that winter had begun now in good earnest. "Yes," said Bella. "Why, as we came along, there wasn't hardly a leaf on the trees in the squares; and yet only yesterday week, at the gardens, the trees hadn't begun to shed. Had they, Mr. Tweddle? Oh, but I forgot; you were so taken up with paying attention to Ada----(_Well_, James! I suppose I can make a remark!)" "I'll never take you out again, if you don't hold that tongue," he whispered savagely. Mrs. Collum fixed her eyes on Leander, as he sat cowering on her right. "Leander Tweddle," she said, in a hissing whisper, "what is that young person talking about? Who--who is this 'Ada'? I insist upon being told." "If you want to know, ask her," he retorted desperately. All this by-play passed unnoticed by Miss Tweddle, who was probably too full of the cares of a hostess to pay attention to it; and, accordingly, she judged the pause that followed the fitting opportunity for a little speech. "Mrs. Collum, ma'am," she began; "and my dearest Miss Matilda, the flower of all my lady lodgers; and you, Leandy; and Mr. Jauncy; and, though last mentioned, not intentionally so, I assure you, Miss Parkinson, my dear--I couldn't tell you how honoured I feel to see you all sitting, so friendly and cheerful, round my humble table. I hope this will be only the beginning of many more so; and I wish you all your very good healths!" "Which, if I may answer for self and present company," said Mr. Jauncy, nobody else being able to utter a word, "we drink and reciprocate." Leander was saved for the moment, and the dinner passed without further incident. But his aunt's vein of sentiment had been opened, and could not be staunched all at once; for when the cloth was removed, and the decanters and dishes of oranges placed upon the table, she gave a little preparatory cough and began again.