"Unhappily, in one of her maudlin fits, Mrs. Stubbs took a particular fancy to my mother; and one day, in the absence of the 'ninth,' beckoned my unsuspecting parent into her sittingroom, -- and after gratuitously imparting to her the hum-drum history of her domestic squabbles, invited her to take a 'drop o' summat '-- to keep up her I sperrits.'"