the tent, with me in his hand. He did not exhibit _quite_ the same
amount of refinement as his noble young friend; in fact, he was more
like boys in general, and lacked that _perfume_, if I may call it so, of
high breeding which so signally showed itself in _my_ earliest friend,
Lord Adolphus. After a spirited contest between the two gallant boys, I
_was_ thrown over the marquee, and, after such a lofty and prolonged
flight, fell exhausted, without the power of saving myself, into a
little crystal pool of water close by. I heard my noble young
playfellows searching for me everywhere, and began to entertain a deadly
fear that I should be left in my watery prison. Luckily, the warm day
and their game had made them thirsty, and they both came to quench their
thirst here, little thinking of finding me, whom they had no doubt so
long and vainly searched for.

"'By Jove, Dolly,' cried Sir Gerald, '_here's_ the shuttlecock after
all!'

"'What a lark,' replied Lord Adolphus; 'it's been chucked into old
Rosamond's well, and ought to come out beautiful for ever!'

"'I'm glad we found it,' said Sir Gerald; 'or perhaps there'd have been
a row. I saw Githa count 'em all, and she'd have been sure to bully us
about it.'

"'We could have given her the tin for it then,' replied Adolphus, 'only
I'm so hard up just now. I owe a lot of money for sweets and tarts; and
I want to buy a cricket bat this quarter. But hulloa, Gerry, how wet the
beggar is?'

"But the dear gentlemanly fellow, soon remedied this fault, for he wiped
me carefully with his own cambric handkerchief, and I was not the worse,
except that my coronet of plumes looked rather damp, or, as Sir Gerald
facetiously expressed it, "all draggletail!"

"A little sojourn in the glowing Sun, soon restored my feathers to their
early beauty, as I was carefully taken back, no worse for my pleasant
little gambol, and placed in the basket again, on the Duchess's stall.
The hour of opening arrived, one o'clock; but, out upon the cruel Fates!
long before the turning point of noon, lowering clouds had veiled the
bright, too treacherously bright rays of the Sun, and heavy, drenching
showers succeeded, ending in a steady downpour that promised to last out
the day. Oh dear! What ruin and destruction ensued to the elegant
erection of the morning! The marquee leaked in many places from the
sudden violence of the storm, and none of the precautions, hastily
taken, would make it quite water-tight. The unlucky visitors, with their
gay summer dresses all sopped and clinging with wet, crowded in to gain
what little shelter they could; and all was damp, dreary and desolate!
The higher class, more fortunate than the rest, accompanied the Duchess
to the Castle; the stalls were deserted in favour of the younger, and
less particular among the gay party, and the marquee was only crowded by
the more persevering vulgar mob, who were determined to have, as I heard
one of the horrors avow, "their full pennorth," all they could see and
get for their money.

"An evil destiny which seems to have fallen upon me early, relentlessly
followed me now, and ruled my unwilling sacrifice. I was positively sold
from the stall of the Duchess, by her Grace's own maid, to a rich grocer
in the city, for the sum of sixpence! Oh, degradation indeed! Fallen,
fallen, fallen from my high estate indeed was I. No friendly hand
interposed; no better purchaser came, so I was ignominiously wrapped in
paper and put in Mr. Figge's pocket. Nor had ruthless fortune yet done
with me, for when I was carried to the abode of the Figge's, although I
had been really destined as a gift to his only daughter, Araminta
Philippina, I was, by mistake in the hurry of returning, dropped in the
carriage, and although a vigorous search seemed to be made by the fine
footman, he did not succeed in finding me, and I remained hid in a far
back corner of the roomy equipage for some days. Had I fallen