: a look from their father had more influence with them than a
lecture from her.
    Miss Moore - to whom the position of witness to an altercation in which she
took no part was highly displeasing, as being an unimportant secondary post -
now, rallying her dignity, prepared to utter a discourse which was to prove both
parties in the wrong, and to make it clear to each disputant that she had reason
to be ashamed of herself, and ought to submit humbly to the superior sense of
the individual then addressing her. Fortunately for her audience, she had not
harangued above ten minutes, when Sarah's entrance with the tea-tray called her
attention, first, to the fact of that damsel having a gilt comb in her hair, and
a red necklace round her throat, and secondly, and subsequently to a pointed
remonstrance, to the duty of making tea. After the meal, Rose restored her to
good humour by bringing her guitar and asking for a song, and afterwards
engaging her in an intelligent and sharp cross-examination about guitar-playing
and music in general.
    Jessie, meantime, directed her assiduities to Caroline. Sitting on a stool
at her feet, she talked to her, first about religion and then about politics.
Jessie was accustomed at home to drink in a great deal of what her father said
on these subjects, and afterwards in company to retail, with more wit and
fluency than consistency or discretion, his opinions, antipathies, and
preferences. She rated Caroline soundly for being a member of the Established
Church, and for having an uncle a clergyman. She informed her that she lived on
the country, and ought to work for her living honestly, instead of passing a
useless life, and eating the bread of idleness in the shape of tithes. Thence
Jessie passed to a review of the Ministry at that time in office, and a
consideration of its deserts. She made familiar mention of the names of Lord
Castlereagh and Mr. Perceval. Each of these personages she adorned with a
character that might have separately suited Moloch and Belial. She denounced the
war as wholesale murder, and Lord Wellington as a hired butcher.
    Her auditress listened with exceeding edification. Jessie had something of
the genius of humour in her nature: it was inexpressibly comic to hear her
repeating her sire's denunciations in his nervous northern Doric; as hearty a
little Jacobin as ever pent a free mutinous spirit in a muslin frock and sash.
Not malignant by nature, her language was not so bitter as it was racy, and the
expressive little face gave a piquancy to every phrase