34 The Fairy Godmothers.

her curls: and while this operation was going on
fhe began to talk to the nurfe.

“* Nurfe, fhould you think it a very nice thing
to go to a dinner party and fit in chairs all round
a large room, where the coloured covers are taken
away and everything looks very gay, and fo tidy,
nobody is allowed to do anything but {mile, and
talk, and wear white kid gloves ?”

“* Very nice, Mifs, it’s fo like a lady,” was the
Nurfe’s ready reply.

‘Well then, I don’t think it’s nice at all,
Nurfe—I think it’s very nafty and ftupid.”

“ Dear, Mifs Hermione, how you do talk; I
hope you won’t tell the ladies fo when you get
down {ftairs.”

“© Oh dear no, that would be rude, and it’s
wrong to be rude, but to tell you the truth I don’t
know what I fhall do when I grow up if I am
obliged to be fo dull as that is, very often.”

“ Goodnefs, Mifs Hermione, to hear you talk
one would think you’d better be a houfemaid at
once, inftead of a lady with nothing to do.”

*“ Nurfe, I fhould fee no objection to be a
houfemaid at all, only that I am learning fo many
things that wouldn’t fuit a houfemaid ; but without
being a houfemaid there are many pleafanter things
to do than to fit in that ftupid fort of way. [|
like the room when all Papa’s books and papers
are about, and when he is {cribbling away fo bufy,
and when Mamma has got her microfcope out
looking at feaweeds or curiofities. I have a chance