catherine-wheel. Uniform was not looked to
strictly then; and he sometimes wore a good
honest " neckerchief," wound several times about
his throat, sometimes a sober-coloured stock.
Everybody knew him, except the poor
dissenting clergy of the place, the mere French
curés, whom he kept at a distance. For it
was, of course, considered that the English was
the real established church.

CHAPTER II. THE PACKET COMES IN.

IT was the custom for the whole community
to muster in its strength on "the port," a
sort of mall, and see the packet come in.
That ceremonial, it would have been imagined,
must have grown monotonous from daily
repetition; but, on the contrary, it never palled:
appetite, as the French gentlemen would have
said, only came with eating. The young
ladies would no more have missed that rappel
than they would have missed their " church."
Sometimes there were delays, and little English
brothers were sent up a certain winding hill,
which commanded a good view of the open
sea, to try and make out the distant smoke.
When they returned with the news, Matilda and
Mary put away their work, hurried to their
glasses to settle their bonnets, and then
repaired slowly across to the prado, already
crowded. There they carried out, poor souls,
the little pattern of home life, the genteel
greetings, the surprise, the overjoy, the coquetting
with the rather shady cavaliers. All
were wisely agreed in carrying out the fiction,
which indeed made things more pleasant. And
here, as elsewhere, were your desirable men,
your " nice people," whom every one ought to
know, your select " coterie" which drew a line.
The well-to-do and genteel, only birds of
passage, would not know the poor and genteel.
The latter drew a line between themselves and
the "shabby genteel." The shabby genteel
would not know the class which the captain
spoke familiarly of as "the Raps." Yet there
were some mysterious laws in this mixed
society. For the " Raps," combined with show
and money and agreeable manners, could do
more than any of the other classes, and made
their way anywhere. There was always a
charming family, a quiet, gentlemanly father of
military bearing, a wife and nice daughters,
"whose new arrival Mr. Blacker, who had "just
come from calling on them," was heralding
about in all excitement, pestering every lady:

"My dear madam, I must make it a point,
you will call on them. Most charming people;
one of the best of our old English country
families."

"Indeed!"

"I have been taking him round to the shops.
They want looking-glass, carriages, horses—
really quite an air about them. Come here only
for the daughter's health — sent by Sir Duncan
Dennison." (What a compliment to the place
in that "only!") Mr. Blacker was thus
impetuous in his trumpeting new comers, every
one of whom he took up with enthusiasm, and
nearly every one of whom, become the blackest
of his swans, was sure to bring the most
awkward result to his predictions. By that time,
however, he had grown indifferent, had found
swans still more black, and left them to their fate.

They clustered more thickly on that poor
promenade. The faded costumes began to
gather. There were meetings, great strictness
of etiquette in the way of easy
salutation and easier conversation. The gentleman
in the grey suit, and with the small
beard just turning a faint grey, was there, with
a lady on his arm — a square-faced woman of
about fifty, with a stern and solid brown curl
laid on each side of her cheek; yet was not a
"dowdy," and wore a handsome shawl, which
every one can do, and wore it handsomely,
which every one cannot do. She was the
barrister's sister, with a cold manner, stiff and stern
as were her curls, but was believed by a few to
have a warm heart. They were standing apart.
He was looking out towards the town — towards
the Grande Rue, and the sister was glancing
towards the packet. " Ah, here she is!" he said
at last, as the young girl who had walked last
in Miss Pringle's procession came tripping
towards them. She gave one hand to each with
a smiling and delighted face, her right to Mr.
West. "Thank you, oh thank you," she said,
earnestly, "for speaking to Miss Pringle. It
was such a pleasant surprise, and I felt so
miserable when we were passing the port. But
I suppose she wished to keep me in suspense,
and train us to habits of self-restraint. At the
same time, if she had refused, and as I am
leaving her ——"

"Well," said Mr. West, " what would you
have done, now? Let us hear."

"I think" said she, seriously, and fixing her
eyes on him, "I should have come myself. Oh
yes! Why should she restrain me when I wish
to meet my dear father. What discipline is
there in that, I, the oldest pupil in the school,
should wish to know? Will it do me any
good?"

She smiled; Miss Margaret West looked
grave:

"What is the use of going to school at all
then?" she cried.

"Quite right," said West, sarcastically. " I
don't believe in schools, for one; but still, poor
Pringle means well. If you were to do this,
Miss Cobbe and the others would follow suit,
and all would become chaos. Ah, here's the
packet coming. See how these rude starers are
gathering to get good places in the front line.
Now, will it bring your father? that is the first
question; and has he arranged with the great
patron for a seat? that is the second."

The young girl — she was about nineteen—
drew her head up in a stately manner, a common
motion with her. " And what is the third, and
the fourth? You are always doubting," she
said, quickly. " That is because you think
everything bad in the world. I would much
rather think well of the world, and be taken in
now and again. I would, indeed."