54 A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. 



phesied that, when it was touched, there would be 

 such an inundation of juice as would compel the 

 company to swim for their lives. Finally, the 

 Duchess had been persuaded to divide it with her 

 neighbour, and then the imposture was discovered. 

 It had been such fun ! Every one had been amused, 

 and the host, though he seemed puzzled and annoyed 

 at first, had laughed most heartily of all. 



All this was very successful ; but it was not the 

 success I had intended. Not a word of blame was 

 spoken of him for whose entire confusion and dis- 

 comfiture I had laid my malignant plans. I alone 

 was censured, and that most mildly. Taken by my 

 mother to the Castle, in the carriage and my new 

 clothes, I had expressed my penitence to the Duchess, 

 and had been immediately punished with a large 

 casket of the most delicious bonbons I ever tasted. 



Some years afterwards, for the war continued, and 

 " revenge, Timotheus cried," through my boyhood, I 

 made another hostile experiment, which had a com- 

 pletely felicitous issue. Once a-month Mr. Evans, 

 mine enemy, brought in his account-book, and used 

 to sit in an arm-chair by the fire in the servants' hall, 

 awaiting his master's leisure. From an interview of 

 this kind, my father returned one winter's evening to 

 the bosom of his family, in a condition of extreme 

 bewilderment. "Evans had behaved in the most 

 extraordinary manner. Evans, the soberest man on 

 the estate, was ostentatiously intoxicated ; could 

 scarcely rise to salute his master, and when he did 

 rise had brought the arm-chair with him, and worn it 

 behind him in the most ridiculous manner. Had 



