"I c-ca-call," said the gentleman, stammering fearfully, in con-
consequence of a b-b-bill--I--ch-chanced to see in my ri-ri-ri-ride
yesterday--on a wa-wa-wall. You-you, I--sup-sup--"

"Am X. X.," put in Mrs. Crane, growing impatient, "one of the friends of
Mr. Waife, by whom the handbill has been circulated; it will indeed be a
great relief to us to know where they are,--the little girl more
especially."

Mrs. Crane was respectably dressed,--in silk iron-gray; she had crisped
her flaky tresses into stiff hard ringlets, that fell like long screws
from under a black velvet band. Mrs. Crane never wore a cap, nor could
you fancy her in a cap; but the velvet band looked as rigid as if gummed
to a hoop of steel. Her manner and tone of voice were those of an
educated person, not unused to some society above the vulgar; and yet the
visitor, in whom the reader recognizes the piscatorial Oxonian, with whom
Waife had interchanged philosophy on the marge of the running brooklet,
drew back as she advanced and spoke; and, bent on an errand of kindness,
he was seized with a vague misgiving.

MRS. CRANE (blandly).--"I fear they must be badly off. I hope they are
not wanting the necessaries of life. But pray be seated, sir." She
looked at him again, and with more respect in her address than she had
before thrown into it, added, with a half courtesy, as she seated herself
by his side, "A clergyman of the Established Church, I presume, sir?"

OXONIAN (stammer, as on a former occasion, respectfully omitted).--"With
this defect, ma'am!--But to the point. Some days ago I happened to fall
in with an elderly person, such as is described, with a very pretty