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 papa; this is the best venture you have ever made."

"Ah, they don't know yet about the Cashmire shawls; won't they be delighted?" thought Captain Hopkinson, as the girls carried their mother off to her toilette.

The result was most successful; the lace mantilla was, as Mrs. Hopkinson said, such a lady-like disguise, that she made her entry at Pleasance without becoming unusually red in the face, and the quiet kindness with which she was greeted, and the unaffected gaiety of her hosts, put her quite at ease. Seated at dinner next to Lord Chester, who exerted himself to amuse her, Baxter and the footman lost their terrors, and her delight was great when Dr. Ayscough glided into the chair at her side. "I really think it is high time John should begin to be jealous of that man," she told her daughters afterwards. "Of course I did not mention Charlie, it would have been presuming; but he began talking of him directly, and when I said how wonderfully the child had improved, he said I should live