centre-table was a magazine-stand, where Saint Nicholas and The
Century, The Forum and The Scientific American jostled each other
in friendly rivalry. Mrs. Merryweather sat in a low chair, with
her lap full of books, and had some difficulty in rising to
receive her visitors. Her hearty welcome assured them that they
had not come a day too soon, as Mrs. Grahame feared.

"My dear lady, no! I am charmed to see you. Bell has had such
pleasure in making friends with your daughter. Miss Grahame, I am
delighted to see you!" and Mrs. Merryweather held out what she
thought was her hand, but Hildegarde shook instead a small morocco
volume, and was well content when she saw that it was the "Golden
Treasury."

"Bell has had such pleasure that I have been most anxious to share
it, and to know you and your daughter. Shall we be neighbourly? I
am the most unceremonious person in the world. Dear me! isn't
there a chair without books on it? Here, my dear Mrs. Grahame, sit
down here, pray! It is Dr. Johnson himself who makes room for you,
and you must excuse the great man for being slow in his
movements."

With a merry smile, she offered the chair from which she had just
removed a huge folio dictionary. Hildegarde found an ottoman which
she could easily share with a volume of Punch, and Mrs.
Merryweather beamed at them over her spectacles, and said again
that she was delighted to see them.

"We are getting the books to rights gradually," she said, "but it
takes time, as you see. I have to do this myself, with Bell's