Mrs. Stokes, with raised eyebrows, was about to remonstrate, Mrs. Betts, with flushed dismay, was about to argue, when Miss Jocund interposed; she entered into the young lady's sentiments: "Miss Fairfax has spoken, and Miss Fairfax is right. A pleasant look is the glory of a woman's face, and without a pleasant look, if I were a single gentleman a woman might wear a coal-scuttle for me." At this crisis there occurred a scuffle and commotion on the stairs, and Bessie recognized a voice she had heard elsewhere--a loud, ineffectual voice--pleading, "Master Justus, Master Justus, you are not to go to your granny in the show-room;" and in Master Justus bounced--lovely, delicious, in the whitest of frilly pinafores and most boisterous of naughty humors. Bessie Fairfax stooped down and opened her arms with rapturous invitation. "Come, oh, you bonnie boy!" and she caught him up, shook him, kissed him, tickled him, with an exuberant fun that he evidently shared, and frantically retaliated by pulling down her hair. This was very agreeable to Bessie, but Miss Jocund looked like an angry sphinx, and as the defeated nurse appeared she said with suppressed excitement, "Sally, how often must I warn you to keep the boy out of the show-room? Carry him away." The flaxen cherub was born off kicking and howling; Bessie looked as if she were being punished herself, Mrs. Stokes stood confounded, Mrs. Betts turned red. Only Miss Burleigh seemed unaffected, and inquired simply whose that little boy was. "_Mine_, ma'am," replied the milliner with an emphasis that forbade further question. But Miss Burleigh's reflective powers were awakened. Mrs. Betts, that woman of resources and experience, standing with the blue silk slip half dropt on the Scotch carpet at her feet, reverted to the interrupted business of the hour as if there had been no break. "And if, when it comes to dressing this evening at Lady Angleby's, there's not a thing that fits?" she bitterly suggested. "I will answer for it that everything fits," said Miss Jocund, recovering herself with more effort. "I have worked on true principles. But"--with a persuasive inclination towards Bessie--"if Miss Fairfax will condescend to inspect my productions, she will gratify me and herself also."