“Ah! you are a prudent mamma, and will not let her be conceited.  But to see Geoffrey, with his lips quivering, and yet frowning and looking savage with all his might and main!  Well, you are a capital set of actors, all of you, and we must see the end of it.”

This was the great desire of Beatrice, and she was annoyed with Henrietta for having thrown aside her borrowed garments, but the Fates decreed otherwise.  The Christmas pie came in, grandpapa proceeded to carve it, and soon lost the remembrance of the charade in talking to his eldest grandson about his travels.  A sailor just returned from four years on the South American coast, who had doubled Cape Horn, shot condors on the Andes, caught goats at Juan Fernandez, fished for sharks in the Atlantic, and heard parrots chatter in the Brazilian woods, could not fail to be very entertaining, even though he cared not for the Incas of Peru, and could tell little about the beauties of an iceberg; and accordingly everyone was greatly entertained, except the Queen Bee, who sat in a corner of the sofa, playing with her watch-chain, wondering how long Roger would go on eating pie, looking at the time-piece, and strangling the yawns induced by her inability to attract the notice of either of her squires, whose eyes and ears were all for the newcomer.  She was not even missed; if she had been, it would have been some consolation; but on they went, listening and laughing, as if the course of the Euphrosyne, her quick sailing, and the adventures of her crew, were the only subjects of interest in the world.  He was only at home for a week, but so much the worse, that would be till the end of Beatrice’s own visit, and she supposed it would be nothing but Euphrosyne the whole time.

There was at last a change:  Roger had half a hundred questions to ask about his cousins and all the neighbours.

“And has Philip Carey set up for himself at Allonfield?  Does he get any practice?  I have a great mind to be ill; it would be such a joke to be doctored by Master Philip!”

“Ah! to think of your taking Mr. Frederick for poor Philip,” said Jessie.  “I assure you,” nodding to Fred, “I take it as a great compliment, and so will Philip.”

“And is Fanny Evans as pretty as ever?”

“Oh! grown quite fat and coarse,” said Jessie; “but you may judge for yourself on Monday.  Dear Mrs. Langford is so kind as to give us a regular Christmas party, and all the Evanses and Dittons are coming.  And we are to dance in the dining-room, the best place for it in the county; the floor is so much better laid down than in the Allonfield assembly-room.”

“No such good place for dancing as the deck of a frigate,” said Roger.  “This time last year we had a ball on board the Euphrosyne at Rio.  I took the prettiest girl there in to supper—­don’t be jealous, Jessie, she had not such cheeks as yours.  She was better off there than in the next ball where I met her, in the town.  She fancied she had got rather a thick sandwich at supper:  she peeped in, and what do you think she found?  A great monster of a cockroach, twice as big as any you ever saw.”