A DINNER DIFFICULTY.

The clock had struck four some time, and Madame de la Fite said she feared they kept me from dinner.  I knew it must soon be ready, and therefore made but a slight negative.  She then, with an anxious look at her watch, said she feared she was already too late for her own little dinner.  I was shocked at a hint I had no power to notice, and heard it in silence—­silence unrepressing! for she presently added, “You dine alone, don’t you?”

“Y-e-s,—­if Mrs. Schwellenberg is not well enough to come down stairs to dinner.”

“And can you dine, ma ch`ere mademoiselle—­can you dine at that great table alone?”

“I must !—­the table is not mine.”

“Yes, in Mrs. Schwellenberg’s absence it is.”

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“It has never been made over to me, and I take no power that is not given to me.”

“But the queen, my dearest ma’am—­the queen, if she knew such a person as Madame de la Roche was here.”

She stopped, and I was quite disconcerted.  An attack so explicit, and in presence of Madame de la Roche, was beyond all my expectations.  She then went to the window, and exclaimed, “It rains!—­Mon Dieu! que ferons-nous?—­My poor littel dinner!—­it will be all spoilt!—­La pauvre Madame de la Roche! une telle femme!”

I was now really distressed, and wished much to invite them both to stay; but I was totally helpless ; and could only look, as I felt, in the utmost embarrassment.

The rain continued.  Madame de la Roche could understand but imperfectly what passed, and waited its result with an air of smiling patience.  I endeavoured to talk of other things — but Madame de la Fite was restless in returning to this charge.  She had several times given me very open hints of her desire to dine at Mrs. Schwellenberg’s table ; but I had hitherto appeared not to comprehend them:  she was now determined to come home to the point; and the more I saw her determination, the less liable I became to being overpowered by it.  At length John came to announce dinner.

Madame de la Fite looked at me in a most expressive manner, as she rose and walked towards the window, exclaiming that the rain would not cease; and Madame de la Roche cast upon me a most tender smile, while she lamented that some accident must have prevented her carriage from coming for her.  I felt excessively ashamed, and could only beg them not to be in haste, faithfully assuring them I was by no means disposed for eating.

Poor Madame de la Fite now lost all command of herself, and desiring to speak to me in my own room, said, pretty explicitly, that certainly I might keep anybody to dinner, at so great a table, and all alone, if I wished it.

I was obliged to be equally frank.  I acknowledged that I had reason to believe I might have had that power, from the custom of my predecessor, Mrs. Haggerdorn, upon my first succeeding to her ; but that I was then too uncertain of any Of my privileges to assume a single one of them unauthorised by the queen.  Madame de la Fite was not at all satisfied, and significantly said,