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 dropped a very distant curtsey. The good woman perfectly understood the meaning of her behaviour; but not at all discomposed by it, placidly resumed her work.

"Well," said Mary, "I suppose your time has been pleasantly spent at Mount Flinders, as you have staid so much longer than you intended."

"One's time is always spent pleasantly there," returned Bell. "How can it be otherwise with people, who always keep company with people of fashion like themselves. It is some advantage, indeed, to have such neighbours! so gay, and so agreeable! and we have been so happy! do you know we never sat down to dinner till six o'clock, nor have gone to bed till past three in the morning."

"Then," said Mary, smiling, "you dined at the same hour that our plowmen dine all the winter; and as to going to bed at three in the morning, the shepherd has kept still genteeler hours than