'And whatever we may feel,' observed the considerate Atropos, 'I think, my dear girls, you had better restrain yourselves.'

   'And what sort of thing is she?' inquired Tisiphone, with a shriek.

   'I have heard that she is lovely,' answered Clotho. 'Indeed, it is impossible to account for the affair in any other way.'

   ''Tis neither possible to account for nor to justify it,' squeaked Megæra.

   'Is there, indeed, a Queen in Hell?' moaned Alecto.

   'We shall hold no more drawing-rooms,' said Lachesis.

   'We will never attend hers,' said the Furies.

   'You must,' replied the Fates.

   'I have no doubt she will give herself airs,' shrieked Tisiphone.

   'We must remember where she has been brought up, and be considerate,' replied Lachesis.

   'I dare say you three will get on very well with her,' squeaked Megasra. 'You always get on well with people.'

   'We must remember how very strange things here must appear to her,' observed Atropos.

   'No one can deny that there are some very disagreeable sights,' said Clotho.

   'There is something in that,' replied Tisiphone, looking in the glass, and arranging her serpents; 'and for my part, poor girl, I almost pity her, when I think she will have to visit the Harpies.'

   At this moment four little pages entered the room, who, without exception, were the most hideous dwarfs that ever attended upon a monarch. They were clothed only in parti-coloured tunics, and their breasts and legs were quite bare. From the countenance of the first you would have supposed he was in a convulsion; his hands were clenched and his hair stood on end: this was Terror! The protruded veins of the second seemed ready to burst, and his rubicund visage decidedly proved that he had blood in his head; this was Rage! The third was of an ashen colour throughout: this was Paleness! And the fourth, with a countenance not without traces of beauty, was even more disgusting than his companions from the quantity of 

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