duty to mention that a glass of hot brandy-and-water would be but
common prudence."

"The first part of your advice shall be complied with," assented our
hostess,--"that is, if I can find anything to put on to them. As to the
last suggestion,--I have, to be sure, a decanter of fine old Cognac in
the closet, but it would be almost an insult to offer it."

"The pledge has its important exceptions," observed Mr. Stellato,
shivering perceptibly. "'Except when prescribed by a medical
attendant,'--I believe I quote the exact language, Mrs. Romulus,--and
Dr. Dastick has a diploma."

"Come up-stairs, then," said Mrs. Widesworth, taking the decanter from
the closet; "you will all catch your deaths of cold, if you stay another
minute."

When the three patrons of Progress again appeared among us, they really
seemed to have accomplished their transference to an unconventional and
pastoral era. The ladies were quite lost in the spacious habits provided
for them. Likewise, they were curiously swathed in shawls and scarfs of
various make and texture, and might be considered representatives of any
age, past, present, or future, to which the beholder might take a fancy.
Mr. Stellato had been got into the only article of male attire which the
establishment afforded. This was an ancient dressing-gown, very small in
the arms, and narrow in the back: it had belonged to Twynintuft himself,
who was six feet two, and as thin as a bean-pole. The thickly wadded
skirts swept the ground, or clung heavily about the lower limbs. The
garment combined every disadvantage of a Roman toga and a fashionable
swallow-tail.