A SUBURBAN PARLOUR. 133 



When, in pursuance of this hospitable purpose, the old gen- 

 tleman had unsuspiciously shut the door upon us, we took an 

 honest survey of the room; in a strange apartment no un- 

 common procedure, often affording at a glance some considerable 

 insight into its occupant's pursuits and character. Flanking the 

 watch-tower on the mantle-shelf was a profusion of shells, in 

 the midst of which, like monsters of the deep, grinned, on each 

 side one, a pair of corpulent Chinese bonzes. Perhaps our 

 friend, in his youth, had " occupied his business in great waters." 

 One thing was evident there were no women-kind about the 

 good man's house : not a work-basket, a pair of scissors, a 

 nutmeg-grater, or even a thread on the carpet to indicate female 

 occupancy. The old man must be a bachelor; but no, over 

 the fire-place hung a portrait, and a very good one, of a pretty 

 woman in the dress of a lady some forty years ago, and below 

 it the miniature of a sweet little girl, whose innocence looked 

 out of a pair of large blue eyes, cut exactly after the same pat- 

 tern as those of the elder portrait. No doubt then he was a 

 widower. So far satisfied, we turned our eyes towards the 

 window to see how long we were likely to encroach on his hos- 

 pitality and then first noticed in the window-seat a square 

 glass case, raised by some books to bring it on a level with the 

 light. It was roofed with gauze and floored with wet sand, 

 wherein was stuck a branch from a white rose-bush, which we 

 perceived, on looking closer, to be peopled by some half-dozen 

 of large Lady-birds. The insects were almost too many to be 

 there by accident: the rose-branch, too, was well furnished 

 with Aphides, their favourite fare, and seemed therefore as if 

 chosen expressly for their accommodation. The glass case was 

 certainly then a cage for Lady-birds, and the old gentleman 

 must be, it followed, a brother entomologist. We had just 

 arrived at this conclusion when the parlour door re-opened and 

 in came our stranger friend, followed by a Hebe in curl-papers, 

 bearing on a tea-tray a smoking jug, a pint bottle, and two 

 capacious goblets of different shapes and sizes. " The gentle- 



