Mrs Ireton, who was reading a news-paper, did not, for some time, raise her head; though a glance of her eye procured her the satisfaction of seeing that her call had been obeyed. Juliet, at first, stood modestly waiting for commands; but, receiving none, sat down, though at an humble distance; determined to abide by the consequences, be they what they might, of considering herself as, at least, above a common domestic. This action shortened the term of neglect; Mrs Ireton, letting the news-paper fall, exclaimed, in a tone of affected alarm, 'Are you ill, Ma'am? Are you disordered? I hope you are not subject to fits?' Juliet coldly answered No. 'I am very glad to hear it, indeed! Very happy, upon my word! I was afraid you were going to faint away! But I find that you are only delicate; only fatigued by descending the stairs. I ought, indeed, to have sent somebody to help you; somebody you could have leant upon as you came along. I was very stupid not to think of that. I hope you'll pardon me?' Juliet looked down, but kept her place. Mrs Ireton, a little nettled, was silent a few minutes, and then said, 'Pray,--if I may ask,--if it will not be too great a liberty to ask,--what have been your pursuits since I had the honour of accompanying you to London? How have you passed your time? I hope you have found something to amuse you?' Juliet sighed a negative. 'You have been studying the fine arts, I am told. Painting?--Drawing?--Sculpture?--or what is it?--Something of that sort, I am informed. Pray what is it, Mrs Thing-a-mi?--I am always forgetting your name. Yet you have certainly a name; but I don't know how it is, I can never remember it. I believe I must beg you to write it down.' Juliet again only sighed. 'Perhaps I am making a mistake as to your occupations? Very likely I may be quite in the wrong? Indeed I think I recollect, now, what it is you have been doing. Acting?--That's it. Is it not? Pray what stage did you come out upon first? Did you begin wearing your itinerant buskins in England, or abroad?' 'Where I began, Madam, I have ended; at Mrs Maple's.' 'And pray, have you kept that same face ever since I saw you in Grosvenor Square? or have you put it on again only now, to come back to me? I rather suppose you have made it last the whole time. It would be very expensive, I apprehend, to change it frequently: it can by no means be so costly to keep it only in repair. How do you put on your colours? I have heard of somebody who had learnt the art of enamelling their own skin: is that your method?' Waiting vainly for an answer, she went on.