Let us return, however, to the solitary Smirke.
Smirke had one confidante for his passion--that most injudicious woman, Madame Fribsby.

How she became Madame Fribsby, nobody knows: she had left Clavering to go to a milliner's in London as Miss Fribsby--she pretended that she had got the rank in Paris during her residence in that city.

But how could the French king, were he ever so much disposed, give her any such title?
We shall not inquire into this mystery, however.

Suffice to say, she went away from home a bouncing young lass; she returned a rather elderly character, with a Madonna front and a melancholy countenance--bought the late Mrs.Harbottle's business for a song--took her elderly mother to live with her; was very good to the poor, was constant at church, and had the best of characters.

But there was no one in all Clavering, not Mrs.Portman herself, who read so many novels as Madame Fribsby.