much lighter and more elegant in Paris than in
England. Indeed, I am not sure if they have
ever reached you, for it is not a month since I
saw the first of the kind in Paris.'"

"Does she say anything about Polly-Cockatoo?"
asked Miss Pole. "That would
settle the matter at once, as showing that she
had him in her mind."

"No— nothing."

Just then Fanny came along the passage with
the tray full of dinner-things in her hands.
When she had put them down, she stood at the
door of the dining-room taking a distant view of
the article. "Please, ma'am, it looks like a
petticoat without any stuff in it; indeed it does,
if I'm to be whipped for saying it."

But she only drew down upon herself a fresh
objurgation from the cook; and sorry and annoyed,
I seized the opportunity of taking the
thing out of cook's hand, and carrying it upstairs,
for it was full time to get ready for
dinner. But we had very little appetite for our
meal, and kept constantly making suggestions,
one to the other, as to the nature and purpose of
this Paris "cage," but as constantly snubbing
poor little Fanny's reiteration of "Please,
ma'am, I do believe it's a kind of petticoat— indeed
I do." At length Miss Pole turned upon
her with almost as much vehemence as cook had
done, only in choicer language.

"Don't be so silly, Fanny. Do you think
ladies are like children, and must be put in go-carts;
or need wire guards like fires to surround
them; or can get warmth out of bits of whalebone
and steel; a likely thing indeed! Don't
keep talking about what you don't understand."

So our maiden was mute for the rest of the
meal. After dinner we had Polly brought upstairs
in her old cage, and I held out the new
one, and we turned it about in every way. At
length Miss Pole said:

"Put Polly-Cockatoo back, and shut him up
in his cage. You hold this French thing up"
(alas! that my present should be called a
"thing"), "and I'll sew a bottom on to it. I'll
lay a good deal, they've forgotten to sew in the
bottom before sending it off." So I held and
she sewed; and then she held and I sewed, till
it was all done. Just as we had put Polly-Cockatoo
in, and were closing up the top with a
pretty piece of old yellow ribbon— and, indeed,
it was not a bad-looking cage after all our trouble
— Mr. Hoggins came up-stairs, having been seen
by Fanny before he had time to knock at the
door.

"Hallo!" said he, almost tumbling over us,
as we were sitting on the floor at our work.
"What's this?"

"It's this pretty present for Polly-Cockatoo,"
said Miss Pole, raising herself up with as much
dignity as she could, "that Mary has had sent
from Paris for me." Miss Pole was in great spirits
now we had got Polly in; I can't say that I was.

Mr. Hoggins began to laugh in his boisterous
vulgar way.

"For Polly— ha! ha! It's meant for you,
Miss Pole— ha! ha! It's a new invention to
hold your gowns out— ha! ha!"

"Mr. Hoggins! you may be a surgeon, and a
very clever one, but nothing— not even your
profession— gives you a right to be indecent."

Miss Pole was thoroughly roused, and I
trembled in my shoes. But Mr. Hoggins only
laughed the more. Polly screamed in concert,
but Miss Pole stood in stiff rigid propriety, very
red in the face.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Pole, I am sure.
But I am pretty certain I am right. It's no indecency
that I can see; my wife and Mrs. FitzAdam
take in a Paris fashion-book between 'em,
and I can't help seeing the plates of fashions
sometimes— ha! ha! ha! Look, Polly has got
out of his queer prison— ha! ha! ha!"

Just then Mr. Peter came in; Miss Matty
was so curious to know if the expected present
had arrived. Mr. Hoggins took him by the
arm, and pointed to the poor thing lying on the
ground, but could not explain for laughing.
Miss Pole said:

"Although I am not accustomed to give an
explanation of my conduct to gentlemen, yet,
being insulted in my own house by— by Mr.
Hoggins, I must appeal to the brother of my old
friend— my very oldest friend. Is this article a
lady's petticoat, or a bird's cage?"

She held it up as she made this solemn inquiry.
Mr. Hoggins seized the moment to
leave the room, in shame, as I supposed, but,
in reality, to fetch his wife's fashion-book; and,
before I had completed the narration of the
story of my unlucky commission, he returned,
and, holding the fashion-plate open by the side
of the extended article, demonstrated the identity
of the two.

But Mr. Peter had always a smooth way of
turning off anger, by either his fun or a compliment.
"It is a cage," said he, bowing to Miss
Pole; "but it is a cage for an angel, instead of
a bird! Come along, Hoggins, I want to speak
to you!"

And, with an apology, he took the offending
and victorious surgeon out of Miss Pole's presence.
For a good while we said nothing; and
we were now rather shy of little Fanny's superior
wisdom when she brought up tea. But towards
night our spirits revived, and we were
quite ourselves again, when Miss Pole proposed
that we should cut up the pieces of steel or
whalebone— which, to do them justice, were
very elastic— and make ourselves two good comfortable
English calashes out of them with the
aid of a piece of dyed silk which Miss Pole had
by her.

On Thursday, the Third of December, will be published,
price 4d.,

MRS. LIRRIPER'S LODGINGS,

FORMING

The Extra Double Number for Christmas.