After tea, I was despatched downstairs into the dining-parlour for that volume of the old Encyclopaedia which contained the nouns beginning with C, in order that Miss Pole might prime herself with scientific explanations for the tricks of the following evening.  It spoilt the pool at Preference which Miss Matty and Mrs Forrester had been looking forward to, for Miss Pole became so much absorbed in her subject, and the plates by which it was illustrated, that we felt it would be cruel to disturb her otherwise than by one or two well-timed yawns, which I threw in now and then, for I was really touched by the meek way in which the two ladies were bearing their disappointment.  But Miss Pole only read the more zealously, imparting to us no more information than this —

“Ah!  I see; I comprehend perfectly.  A represents the ball.  Put A between B and D—­no! between C and F, and turn the second joint of the third finger of your left hand over the wrist of your right H. Very clear indeed!  My dear Mrs Forrester, conjuring and witchcraft is a mere affair of the alphabet.  Do let me read you this one passage?”

Mrs Forrester implored Miss Pole to spare her, saying, from a child upwards, she never could understand being read aloud to; and I dropped the pack of cards, which I had been shuffling very audibly, and by this discreet movement I obliged Miss Pole to perceive that Preference was to have been the order of the evening, and to propose, rather unwillingly, that the pool should commence.  The pleasant brightness that stole over the other two ladies’ faces on this!  Miss Matty had one or two twinges of self-reproach for having interrupted Miss Pole in her studies:  and did not remember her cards well, or give her full attention to the game, until she had soothed her conscience by offering to lend the volume of the Encyclopaedia to Miss Pole, who accepted it thankfully, and said Betty should take it home when she came with the lantern.

The next evening we were all in a little gentle flutter at the idea of the gaiety before us.  Miss Matty went up to dress betimes, and hurried me until I was ready, when we found we had an hour-and-a-half to wait before the “doors opened at seven precisely.”  And we had only twenty yards to go!  However, as Miss Matty said, it would not do to get too much absorbed in anything, and forget the time; so she thought we had better sit quietly, without lighting the candles, till five minutes to seven.  So Miss Matty dozed, and I knitted.

At length we set off; and at the door under the carriage-way at the “George,” we met Mrs Forrester and Miss Pole:  the latter was discussing the subject of the evening with more vehemence than ever, and throwing X’s and B’s at our heads like hailstones.  She had even copied one or two of the “receipts”—­as she called them—­ for the different tricks, on backs of letters, ready to explain and to detect Signor Brunoni’s arts.