7 
1826. ] Old Neighbours. 275 
lazy tongs on one side of her, anda small table on the other, provided 
with every thing that she was likely or unlikely to want for the whole 
morning. The bell-pull was also within reach : but she had an aversion 
to ringing the bell, a process which involved the subsequent exertion of 
speaking to the servant when he appeared. The dumb-waiter was her 
favouriteiattendant.. There she sate, sofa-ridden ; so immovyeable, that if 
the fire had been fierce enough to roast her intoa fever, as once happened 
to some exquisitely silly king of Spain, I do think that she would),haye 
followed his example, and have staid quiet, not from etiquette,. but from 
sheer laziness. She was not however unemployed ; your very idle people 
have generally some play-work, the more tedious and useless the better, 
her’s was knitting with. indefatigable perseverance little diamonds in 
white cotton, destined at some future period to dovetail into a counter- 
pane. The diamonds were striped, and were intended to be sewed 
together so artistically that the stripes should intersect each other, one 
row running perpendicularly and the next horizontally, so as to form a 
regular pattern ; a bit of white mosaic, a tessellated quilt, 
At this work I regularly found Mrs. Allen when compelled to the 
“sad civility” of a morning call, in which her unlucky visitor had,all the 
trouble of keeping up the conversation. What a trouble it was! justlike 
‘playing at battledore by one’s self, or singing a duett with one’s,own 
single voice: not the lightest tap would mine hostess give to the shut- 
tlecock ;—not a note would she contribute to the concert. She might 
almost as well have been born dumb, and but for a few stray noes, and 
yeses, and once in a quarter some savourless inquiry, she might certainly 
have passed for such. She would not even talk of the weather. .,Then 
her way of listening! One would have wagered that she.was deaf. 
News was thrown away upon her ;, scandal did not rouse her ;, the edge 
of wit fell upon her dulness like the sword of Richard on. the, pillew 
of Saladin. There never was sucha woman! Her drawing-room,,.too, 
lacked all the artificial aids of conversation ; no books, no newspapers, 
no children, no dogs; nothing but Mrs. Allen and her. knitted squares, 
and an old Persian cat, who lay stretched on the hearth-rug, as impas- 
sable as his mistress ; a' cat so iniquitously quiet that he would neither 
play, nor pur, nor scratch, nor give any token of existence beyond mere 
breathing. I don’t think, ifa mouse had come across him, that he wo 
have condescended to notice it. ys 
Such was the state of things within the room: without, it was nearl 
as bad. Her house, one of the best in W., was-situate in a new street 
standing slant-ways to one of the entrances of the town; a street of great 
gentility but of little resort, and above all, no thoroughfare. So that after 
oing to the window to look for a subject, and seeing nothing but -the 
dead-wall of an: opposite chapel, we were driven back to the: sofa:to 
expatitate for the twentieth time on Selim’s beauty, and admire’ once 
again the eternal knitting. Oh the horror of those morning visits })..<+ 
One very great aggravation of the calamity was the positive certainty 
of finding Mrs. Allen at home. The gentle satisfaction with which: ene 
takes a_ticket from one’s card-case, after hearing the welcome answer 
“my mistress is just walked out!” never befel one at Mrs, Allen’s. She 
never took a walk, although she did sometimes, moved by. the earnest.ad- 
vice of her apothecary, get so faras to talk of doing so. The weather was 
always too hot, or too cold ; or it had been raining ; or it looked likely*to 
rain ; or the streets were dirty; or the roads were dusty; or the sun 
ae , 2N2 Ke Nias 
