"Cat!!!" echoed Miss Margaret, with three ditto. "Dear me !!! Good Gracious ! ! !" 66 considered extremely like reading a page of "Rasselas," Miss Partridge senior, suddenly paused, as if she had run her eloquence down, and must be freshly wound up ere she could proceed. I was extremely abashed at so much solemnity, and was also afraid to speak to a person possessing such a grand and severe aspect; but amidst all my fear, and with all Miss Partridge's long paragraphic speeches, I could clearly perceive she was right, and that I ought not thus have been left at school, as a carrier would deliver a parcel, or a hamper of game. I felt some apology was due to Mnemosyne House, and to its stately and august principals, or I might say principal, for all this time Miss Margaret, the stout lady, had uttered not a word. I ventured, therefore, to say, that I believed my papa was out of town, and that, as I had now no mamma,—a great | lump rising in my throat as I said it, and tears When I spoke of paying for the cat's food, filling my eyes" perhaps Mrs. M'Logie our the stern features of the senior Miss Partridge, housekeeper did not quite know what was pro- which had been screwed up for denial, relaxed a per to be done on such occasions." little. As for myself, the five pounds in my pocket appeared in the light of a sum so inexhaustible, that had Miss Partridge made it a sine qua non that I should provide the kitchen generally, I should not I believe have objected. But the directress of Mnemosyne House merely said, after some deliberation, "I think you mentioned that the animal was clever in catching vermin." "Extremely." Yes, m'am," I said, "I have had him a long time, ever since he was a little kitten; some cruel boys once wanted to drown him, and when I came away, I loved him so, I could not bear to part with him, for my mamma loved him too, and he loves me very dearly." "Loves!" with amazement from Miss Partridge. "Loves!" with fervid astonishment from Miss Margaret. Whether my fright, my emotion, or my politeness, made an impression on Miss Partridge, I know not; but she appeared somewhat mollified, and was just about to reply, when such an alarming peal of tiny bells was heard from the basket which I held in my arms, that the superior stopped in the act of speech. This ringing was accompanied also by a hoarse croak, not unlike the voice of an irritated frog. In fact, it was Tootsy the cat, who, having indulged in one continuous wail of sorrow, from our house to Arlingford-square, had on our arrival suddenly ceased, remaining "mute and inglorious" till now, when, recovering from his surprise, and probably disgust, at his prolonged incarceration, he angrily asserted his right to freedom, with all his powers of pertinacity. 66 to Miss Partridge cast an awful and questioning glance at the basket, and frowning, appeared about to utter her surprise, then as if recalling the claims of etiquette, she said, "Permit me, Miss De Trevor Castlebrook, to introduce myself as the superior of Mnemosyne House, Establishment for young ladies, and likewise permit me" (as if I should have dreamed of resistance) introduce my sister and co-partner, Miss Margaret Partridge. I think," continued Miss Partridge in a bland tone," that I heard an unaccountable noise. What say you, sister, am I right?" "You are generally right, sister,” replied Miss Margaret, as if some one had contradicted the superior's infallibility. "I did hear an extraordinary noise." "I believe," said Miss Partridge, "I am also not wrong in asserting that it seems to proceed from Miss Castlebrook's basket. May I take the liberty of inquiring what are the contents?" "My face flushed. I felt a critical moment had arrived; but, I was compelled to answer this disagreeable query, so I said, ""Tis only my cat, if you please, m'am." "Cat!!" said Miss Partridge, with two notes of admiration. I hastened to explain. "Would the ladies allow the poor cat to have the use of their kitchen? of course I would pay for the expense of feeding him. "He was," I said eagerly, "an excellent mouser, and had even been known to kill rats." 66 Because, sister," said Miss Partridge, turning round in a confidential way towards Miss Margaret, "the cook told me yesterday that the pantry was infested with rats." "Quite true, sister," responded Miss Margaret. "You remember the cheese at supper the other night." "Sister, said Miss Partridge didactically, "in houses and establishments like ours, there are frequently to be found two-legged rats." Thinking this an extraordinary fact in natural history, I looked interested, perhaps inquisitively so, for Miss Partridge waving her hand, an action frequent with her, condescendingly added-"Well then, Miss Castlebrook, though an unprecedented fact-for I must observe that if every young lady who sojourns at Mnemosyne House brought with her a cat, we should resemble a-a- -Whittington's Ship," said Miss Partridge fishing for a simile: "yet, as we keep no dog, why-provided you undertake the expenses attendant on sustaining the creature, I will consent that it shall remain. I was overcome with joy at this declaration, but recollecting the superior's reverence for etiquette, I only smiled and curtsied. Betsy now reappeared on the scene, and Miss Partridge desired the girl, who appeared to do everybody's duty in the house, to take the cat into the kitchen. Tootsy was immediately released from imprisonment. The first use he made of his liberty was to scamper past the Misses Partridge, and rush into the dining-room, bolting up the chimney of an elaborately ornamented stove. t took a considerable time to prevail on him to come down, and when at last, by the seductions, Oh! you have arrived at last, Betsy: perhaps if of a saucer of milk and my voice, he did so, he immediately made another rush out of the room into the court-yard behind the house, where he finally took refuge under the water-butt, from whence, no prayers or intreaties on my part could prevail on him to emerge, and where at last, humiliated and ashamed by his ill conduct, I was reluctantly compelled to leave him. CHAP. VI. Indefatigable Betsy conducted me to the third floor of the house, into a large room, which was the No. 3 alluded to by Miss Partridge. Here I found congregated a number of young girls from thirteen to seventeen years old; they were dressing for dinner, and a middle-aged lady, neither tall nor short, stout nor thin, seemed to be presiding over their several toilettes, exhorting them in divers tones of voice, varying with the occasion. "Miss Long, my dear, how often have I told you not to wash your face with soap. Delicacy of appearance, young ladies, is essential to the character of this establishment, a character it has preserved for-how many years, my dear?" -turning to a young lady who stood by, helping the girls to dress. This young lady, who had beautiful large blue eyes, and who was dressed in black silk, very plainly made, answered, "Thirty-five," she believed. "Yes," said the elder lady, "for thirty-five years. Long before my time, or yours either, Miss Liscombe; before either of us were born or thought of, indeed." Miss Liscombe seemed about twenty. She went on. "But it is incumbent on teachers, on whom the duty devolves of practically conducting a seminary of this recherché description, to inculcate those habits of personal elegance, which it is natural to suppose young ladies, who will possibly one day fill exalted stations, would always choose to practise. Miss Le Tinblane, my dear child, how very wet you make your towel! if I have mentioned to you that fault once, I am sure I have done so twenty times.' دو Miss Le Tinblane, who appeared to be a querulous young lady with no nervous energy, replied in a feeble crying tone "that she supposed she must wash herself, and that when she did, what was she to use except her towel; her papa paid for washing, she believed, perhaps she was mistaken; Miss Phitts, she dared to say, was never wrong." "Now listen, my dear," said Miss Phitts, turning to Miss Liscombe, in an audible aside at which the girls palpably tittered. "Listen to that girl Tinblane (as for the 'le' it is all nonsense); you cannot speak to her but you get twenty words for one. Ladies," with a little sigh, "your dressing-hour is a very great trial, very, and it would serve you right to compel you to remain en peignoire and papillotes all day. it would not be too great a favour, you will bring a duster and dust the looking-glasses, the young ladies cannot see their own faces. I have requested this trifle only five times within the last half hour." Poor Betsy had hardly recovered from her struggle with my boxes. She stood there red and breathless, and said humbly," she couldn't help it, she had been helping with the new young lady's things. And oh! please, this was the new young lady." Those words directed the general observation towards myself. Several of the pupils, having by this time finished dressing, had leisure and opportunity to stare at me, and certainly they made the most of both. All these girls were older than myself, and unused to the society of strangers, I felt especially awkward and uncomfortable. Miss Phitts, who was near-sighted, put up her glass, and coming close to me, made a very minute inspection of my personal appearance, not much, apparently, to her satisfaction; for shrugging her shoulders, and turning to the blue-eyed young lady in mourning, she in one of her stage asides expressed her annoyance at my juvenile appearance. "I had understood that for the future, no pupils under fifteen were to be taken; and see here! How old are you, my dear?" sharply speaking the last words. "I am in my twelfth year, m'am," I replied, greatly abashed to find I was considered so very young. "I thought so," from Miss Phitts, triumphantly. "There's no end of trouble, my dear Miss Liscombe, with these little chits. I fear I shall be compelled to give this up. The introduction of the Farmer girls, whose father you know married the daughter of a dust contractor, and who had the dust of a whole parish for her wedding portion, was decidedly infra dig., but to come to juveniles-why, my dear, we may as well call ourselves a preparatory establishment at once." Miss Liscombe raised her large blue eyes kindly towards me. She smiled, and told Miss Phitts that I was not so very young after all, and that she would take on herself all the extra trouble attendant on my appearance among them. "Come, my love," she said, taking my cold hand as I stood indignant and trembling among these strangers, wondering at the teacher's free remarks, and burning with anger at the bold staring and whispered derision of the fifteen self-assured girls, who lingered round me. Come my love, we will introduce you to your new friends. Young ladies, this is Miss Isabella Castlebrook" (I had whispered to her, at her request, my name). "Our little friend must dress for dinner. Your keys, dear, if you please." I searched in my pocket for these keys, and at last remembered that I had given them to obliging Betsy, to keep for me. She was now busily employed in dusting and clearing away. the implements of the young ladies' toilettes, but came running to Miss Liscombe's call, and knelt down on her poor worn knees to unlock my boxes, some of the junior pupils standing in a circle to survey the articles of dress, which were taken out one by one, and placed in a tiny chest of drawers, of which each pupil had one to her own separate use. The remarks of these fashionably educated young ladies, were not conspicuous for politeness; free observations were passed on every frock displayed, and epithets of shabby," "what a thing," as well as stifled laughter, went from one to the other in whispered sounds. But I am bound to confess the few dresses which Mrs. M'Logie's ignorance of the style of Mnemosyne House deemed sufficient for a school-girl, were of poor materials, and had been made up in the worst possible taste. Doubtless the venerable lady had been compelled to take her commission from whatever sum she had extorted from my father for my outfit. As I wore black, however, there was not fortunately much room for any gaudy display, and I was attired in a black silk which I had been strictly charged to keep for "very best." "Poor child! for whom are you in mourning?" said Susan Liscombe, bending over me as she fastened, with her own thin delicate hand, my frock. I turned round, hid my face on her shoulder, and, in my usual demonstrative way, when my feelings were touched, or kindness excited me, sobbed out-"My own, own dear mamma.” Miss Liscombe pressed my hands, and gently kissing my forehead I saw two large tears force their way down her own sweet face, at which sight a very elegant young lady, attired in the height of the fashion, nudged her neighbour and said, audibly, "there was Liscombe getting up a sentimental scene as usual." "Sympathising, my dear," said this young lady, who was very pretty, and apparently well convinced herself of that fact. As her remarks were uttered in a tone loud enough for Miss Liscombe to hear, the young teacher mildly rebuked the pupil for rude manners; then Lady Laura-for I found that by courtesy she had a title-replied that "Miss Liscombe was an impertinent thing, and that she had better not fatigue herself with remarks which would be entirely thrown away." Miss Liscombe acquiescing in this opinion, and replying that she indeed feared they would, Lady Laura and her friend, a young person who seemed a good deal older than herself, requested Miss Liscombe would recollect she was only the under-teacher, and that consequently she had nothing to do with the elder pupils, who had almost completed their education, and were nearly finished. I remember to have had an idea at the time, that if I were at all likely to have mine finished in the same manner, it was a very great pity I had ever been sent to Mnemosyne House. But Miss Liscombe made no reply to the impertinence of her opponents. She only sighed, and her silence seemed to irritate them consi derably. She took me by the hand, and saying she heard the dinner-bell, recommended Lady Laura and her ally to follow her, for by this time they were the only two who remained. I observed, however, through a half-opened door Miss Phitts in the act of making an elaborate toilette in a small adjoining room, which I found afterwards was appropriated to the senior teacher and Miss Liscombe for their private use and recreation, and which, being the smallest apartment in the house, and used as a receptacle for broken-down furniture and lumber, must, no doubt, have been a highly convenient and agreeable apartment. We proceeded to the school-room, where dinner was usually served to the pupils, the two superiors, Miss Phitts, Mdle. Acajou the French teacher, and Miss Liscombe the junior English teacher, which latter title meant the fagging instructress of the whole school. Considering the numbers of the company sitting down to table, the repast, even to my eyes accustomed to frugality, presented a very slight and insufficient appearance. It consisted of-how vividly I remember my first dinner at Mnemosyne House!-a leg of lamb, a dish of vegetables, and a very large-to convey its true idea I must say, immense-pudding of plain boiled rice. Miss Partridge carved herself, and certainly was highly accomplished in the art of cutting slices of etherial fragility. In a cookshop this lady's services would have been of inestimable value both to buyer and seller, not cutting a hair's breadth beyond the weight, and yet making so much of a little, that the purchaser would fancy he had the best of the bargain. I am bound to state, that to make up for the insufficient nature of the meal, it was served on very handsome China, and plate was abundantly displayed. Each pupil possessed a silver fork, and a silver drinking cup, so that as the Miss Partridge's added their own store, whichfrom the fact that when about to leave Mnemosyne House the young ladies were required to leave their plate also, as a legacy -had during the five-and-thirty years' reign of the educational goddess in Arlingfordsquare, accumulated prodigiously, the dinnertable wore a very handsome, though in point of edibles, a certainly unsatisfactory appearance. One of the pupils, sending round her plate for another slice of lamb-for, wonderful to relate, after all had been served, there still remained a fragmentary joint-Miss Partridge, in her customary stilted phraseology, expressed an opinion that as a rule, young people invariably ate too much. "And indeed," she said, "such a practice is, I assure you, productive of vast and unheard-of evils, producing coarseness of appearance, and, if persisted in, obesity." She uttered this last dreadful word with a certain loud solemnity, as if it were all in capital letters, which produced a great effect. "For example," she continuedand here I observed that Miss Margaret turned very red, and fidgetted about on her chair, as if instinctively she knew what illustration was at hand-" for example, look at my sister, whose | putting some dried peas into the pumps of Mr. unfortunate corpulence of person was produced entirely and solely because the very excellent governess, at whose seminary we received our education, allowed her freely to indulge her youthful appetite at table, a misfortune which, I regret to say, she has never been able to overcome or subdue." Miss Margaret, who had listened to this exordium with evident annoyance, seemed to think it incumbent on her to reply; she accordingly observed that in her opinion portly people were invariably less consumers than lean and emaciated ones, the last two adjectives delivered in italics, as conveying a hidden reproach; and further she uttered a decided conviction that if at that moment she could become as thin as her sister, she would not do so on any account, an assertion at which the elder lady looked supremely incredulous, and the pupils tittered. This subject, I found afterwards, was a point on which Miss Margaret was extremely vulnerable, combining as she did, a romantic disposition, and a milk-and-waterish temperament, with a most unsentimental fulness of personal appearance. Miss Partridge herself braved all the perils of eating and drinking in the most heroic manner, helping herself plentifully, and more than once, to the viands on the table, and though every one else drank water, she kept by her side a bottle of stout, from which she poured out copious draughts. It is true, that she told us once or twice that her weakness was becoming alarming, and that Dr. Tolu said she was to take as much nourishment as possible, a prescription which she appeared to find little difficulty in following. Poor Miss Margaret, on the contrary, dined off a slender slice of lamb without vegetables, and drank water only. To which abstemious habits I found afterwards she always-at least in publicadhered. After the great pudding had been attacked, and finally vanquished, though an enemy of strong resisting powers, we all rose and retired, some to No. 3, others to rooms on the same floor, where we arranged our hair, washed our hands, and prepared for the afternoon studies. This happened to be dancing-day, and there was a good deal of speculation afloat as to whether the master himself, Monsieur Albert à Plomb, would attend, or his apprentice, Mr. Mortimer Glissade. This apprentice was a young gentleman who it seemed had unfortunately incurred Miss Partridge's displeasure by one day declining some pea-soup, for the making of which the establishment was famous. Some of the girls who appeared to admire Mr. Mortimer Glissade, said he had acted quite right. "It was quite enough," they observed, "for the old hen Partridge"-I blushed to hear this irreverent mention of so didactic a lady-" to force such stuff down their throats once a-week;" but to ask such a dear as that, to take it, was a little too bad. There were a few suggestions during the progress of the toilette as to the possibility of Albert à Plomb, who did not seem to be a favourite with his pupils, but this facetious little project fell to the ground through the remissness of the half-boarder, who was the customary caterer of forbidden luxuries to these youthful scions of aristocracy, such as jam tarts, homemade wines, French novels, et cetera, and who had forgotten to provide a stock of peas for such diversions. This young lady, ordinary in ber person, for she squinted, was marked with small-pox, and was somewhat awry, was still genteel in her connexions, being the tenth daughter of a curate, belonging to the Established church. She came in now for much censure, which she received from some with vulgar retorts, from others with fawning servility. It was ultimately proposed that M. à Plomb's cloth boots should be filled with cold water, previous to his departure, which it was thought would most likely give him a severe cold, and effectually prevent his appearance on the next dancing day, and this brilliant suggestion being seconded by Lady Laura who seemed universally looked up to by her admiring juniors, was unanimously carried, the execution of the exploit being entrusted to the experienced hands of Miss Bidkins, the half-boarder, who, having no means of obtaining the luxuries of schoollife, except by implicitly obeying the whims and behests of her patronesses, was obliged to promise obedience, for as one young lady sensibly remarked, if Bidkins was found out, she was accustomed to be punished, so it did not matter. At this crisis I was seized on by two of the elder girls, and given to understand that if I dared tell tales, or refuse to join in these innocent pastimes, I should for the future be tormented perpetually with unknown punishments. Of course being frightened to death I promised strict secrecy, but begged mercy for M. à Plomb, whom I conceived to be an elderly grey-headed gentleman, hearing the term "old" à Plomb applied to him so frequently, for I ventured to suggest that being advanced in years, he might perhaps die, and then we should have his death on our consciences. My intercession was received with shouts of laughter, which created such an unladylike noise, that Miss Phitts came hurrying into No. 3, and angrily announced that M. à Plomb and his assistant were waiting for the ladies, whereupon we all hastened to the back drawing-room, which being a large apartment, and divested of furniture was converted twice a-week into a salle de danse, and where I was presently introduced by Miss Partridge, as a new pupil, to a very ill-tempered-looking middle-aged Frenchman, and a foppish youth, his apprentice. CHAP. VII. The dancing-lesson occupied a couple of hours. Nothing particular occurred, except when the young ladies could not comprehend the steps taught by Mr. à Plomb, who appeared to be a gentleman of irritable tendencies, and who at such times threw himself into a series of passions, more remarkable for the grotesque contortions they produced, and the ill-suppressed ridicule they caused, than for any effect they bad over the evolutions of his pupils. I thought once or twice, but that might have been the perversity of my imagination, that the young ladies occasionally rendered themselves purposely stupid ;seeing that when his own patience was fairly exhausted, Mr. à Plomb, turned his refractory pupils over to the side tuition of Mr. Mortimer Glissade. After the dancing-lesson, we had a light course of Calisthenics, during which Lady Laura, whose surname was Tarragon, hit Mr. à Plomb-accidentally of course-a blow so severe, with the end of her exercise pole, that its effects made the dancing-master more irritable than ever, and becoming confused, he left the lesson entirely to Mr. Mortimer Glissade to finish, the poor gentleman being obliged to retire, and have his temples bathed with eau de Cologne, by the fair hand of Miss Margaret Partridge herself. It was tea-time when the lesson was finished, and we partook of that meal in the school-room. It by no means made up for the paucity of the dinner; and our appetites, from previous exercise, being unromantically keen, we soon cleared the china-dish of thin bread and butter, which the pious young man, clad now in a pepper-andsalt livery, handed solemnly round to us, accompanied by cups of very weak tea. Over this repast the comfortable-looking Miss Margaret presided in sleepy silence, and as no talking was allowed during "refections," as our meals were affectedly termed, we all became infected with her somnolency. Tea over, we were desired to prepare our lessons, and as this was the sole time the teachers had for their own rest or recreation, Miss Liscombe, after setting me my tasks for the following day, retired with the other teachers. Weary enough, doubtless, were those poor souls, with the contention and drudgery they had undergone from six in the morning till six at night, with twenty girls, full of health and vigorous spirits. Judging from what I saw of a school-teacher's life, in the Miss Partridge's establishment, I should greatly prefer as an alternative that of a daily dress-maker, or even picking oakum, and breaking stones, to grinding accomplishments and the belles lettres into the dense brains of boarding-school misses. When Miss Phitts left us to ourselves, she strictly enjoined Bidkins to mount guard during the absence of her seniors, and to report any indecorous behaviour. Perfectly oblivious, however, of the half-boarder, my new companions recreated themselves by romantic dissertations on Mr. Mortimer Glissade's numerous perfections, not the least of which appeared to be, an incipient black moustache, which had promised to adorn the young gentleman's upperlip, and which, his superior, doubtless envious of, had ruthlessly caused to be shaved off. During the course of this conversation, I learned that the cold-water joke having been successfully practised, Mr. à Plomb, with wet feet and a wounded brow, had retired in excessive dudgeon, and that there was every probability that he would not be able to attend the dancing-lessons for a fortnight at least. When it grew dark, the serious young man brought in candles, and then retiring, went to ring the bell for supper, which repast consisted of thin cheese sandwiches, and a large jug of toast and water, drunk out of our silver mugs. On the bell again ringing, there ensued a good deal of bustle, and Miss Partridge majestically sailing into the room, attended by her sister and a suite of teachers, took her place at the head of the table, on which the serious footman had previously placed a large volume covered with green baize, from whence Miss Partridge read prayers. When we arose from these devotions, the tocsin sounded a curfew, and the teachers marshalled us in due form up stairs, some to No. 2, others to No. 3, in which latter room was appointed my own dormitory. Here Miss Liscombe conducted me to a very narrow bed, the young ladies having each a separate one, which appeared rather a necessity than a privilege, the couches so nearly resembling narrow planks with mattrass and pillow to matcb, that it was an obvious impossibility for even two of the smallest girls to sleep together. After our private devotions were finished, the candles were taken away, Susan Liscombe comforting me with a kiss-then all was darkness. It was long, very long, ere I closed my eyes; the novelty of the scenes witnessed by one who for the first time mixed with companions of her own age-the apparent dislike and malice betrayed towards me, even on that first day, by the head girl of the school, the whisperings, continued long after the teachers had withdrawn, all conspired to keep me awake. I wept over my friendless condition, and when at length sleep overtook me, it was while gazing on a bright and placid star, which shone through a window opposite my bed. I had an unaccountable impression that this star was my mother's eye, looking down from heaven on her forlorn and disregarded child. THE MYSTERIOUS GUEST. BY FOWLER BRADNACK. 'Twas night-the clock had just struck ten, |