i 826.] Old Neighbours. 277 
sympathy might exist there; no doubt the daughter would have been as 
ready, to escape from a community of lawn caps and drab gowns) as the 
mother. Her love of pink ribbons was certainly hereditary; and, how- 
ever, derived, her temper was as thoroughly couleur de rose as her cap 
trimming. Through the long quiet mornings, the formal visits, the 
slow-dull dinners; she preserved one unvarying gaiety, carried the inno- 
vation of smiles amongst the insipid gravities of the cassino table; and 
actually struck up an ee flirtation with the apothecary—which 
I, inmy ignorance, expected to find issue in a marriage, and was simple 
enough to be astonished, when one morning the gentleman brought home 
a cherry-cheeked bride, almost young enough to be his grand-daughter. 
_, The.loss of a lover, however, had no effect on Miss Dale’s spirits. I 
haye never known any thing more enviable than the buoyancy of her 
temper. She was not by any means too clever for her company, or too 
well-informed; never shocked their prejudices, or startled their ignorance, 
nor ever indeed said any thing remarkable at all. On the contrary, I 
think that her talk, if recollected, would seem, although always amiable 
and inoffensive, somewhat vapid and savourless ; but her prattle was so 
effervescent, so wp—the cheerfulness was so natural, so real,—that con- 
trary to the effect of most sprightly conversation, it was quite contagious 
and even exhilarated, as much as any thing could exhilarate the sober 
circle amongst whom she moved. 
She had another powerful attraction in her extraordinary pliancy of 
mind. No sooner had the stage-coach conveyed her safely to the door 
of the large house in West Street, than all her Charter-House Square 
associations vanished from her mind ; it seemed as if she had left locked 
up in her drawers with her winter apparel every idea not West Streetian. 
She was as if she had lived in W. all her days: had been born there, and 
there meant to die. She even divested herself of the allowable London 
pride, which looks down so scornfully on country dignitaries, admired 
the Mayor, revered the corporation, preferred the powdered physician to 
Sir Henry Halford, and extolled the bald curate as the most eminent 
preacher in England, Mr. Harness and Mr. Benson nothwithstanding. 
So worthy a denizen of West Street was of course hailed there with 
great delight. Mrs. Allen, always in her silent way glad to receive her 
friends, went so far as to testify some pleasure at the sight of Miss Dale; 
and the Persian. cat, going beyond his mistress in the activity of his 
welcome, fairly sprang into her lap. The visits grew longer and longer, 
more and more frequent, and at last, on some diminution of income, 
ended in her coming regularly to live with Mrs. Allen, partly as humble 
companion, partly as friend: a most desirable increase to that tranquil 
establishment, which was soon after enlarged by the accession of a far 
more important visitor. 
_ Besides her daughter, whom she would have probably forgotten if 
our inquiries had not occasionally reminded her that such a person was 
in existence, Mrs. Allen had a son in India, who did certainly slip her 
memory; except just twice a year when letters arrived from Bengal. 
She herself neyer wrote to either of her children, nor did I ever hear 
her mention Mr. Allen till one day, when she announced, with rather 
more animation. than common, that poor William had returned to 
England on account of ill health, and that she expected him in W. 
that evening. 
_ In the course of a few days my father called on the invalid, and we 
. 
