There were, I believe, more than one of those TURNPIKE STAIRS, as they were called, about the house, by which the public rooms, all of which entered through each other, were accommodated with separate and independent modes of access.

In the little boudoir we have described, Mrs.Martha Baliol had her choicest meetings.

She kept early hours; and if you went in the morning, you must not reckon that space of day as extending beyond three o'clock, or four at the utmost.
These vigilant habits were attended with some restraint on her visitors, but they were indemnified by your always finding the best society and the best information which were to be had for the day in the Scottish capital.

Without at all affecting the blue stocking, she liked books.
They amused her; and if the authors were persons of character, she thought she owed them a debt of civility, which she loved to discharge by personal kindness.

When she gave a dinner to a small party, which she did now and then, she had the good nature to look for, and the good luck to discover, what sort of people suited each other best, and chose her company as Duke Theseus did his hounds,-- "Matched in mouth like bells, Each under each," [Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV.Sc.