er came hurrying in, on the wings of the
intelligence heard below.

'Yes! I knew my own boy would come to me!' she cried. 'Even Miss
Conway has not begun to keep him from me yet.'

'Nor ever will, Aunt Kitty. There are obstacles in the way. You must
be granny, and mother, and sister and wife, and all my womankind, a
little longer, if you please.' And he sat down fondly at her feet, on
a footstool which had been his childish perch.

'Not distressed, you insensible boy?'

'Very happy about Isabel,' said he, turning to look at her with eyes
dancing with merry mystification.

'A foolish girl not to like my Louis! I thought better of her; but I
suppose my Lady has taught her to aim higher!'

'So she does,' said Louis, earnestly.

'Ungrateful girl! Why, Charlotte tells me you led her straight over
the barricades, with cannon firing on you all the time!'

'But not Cupid.'

'Then, it is true! and you have really hurt yourself! And so pale! My
poor boy--what is it? I must nurse you.'

'I had so little blood left, that a gnat of tolerable appetite could
have made an end of me on Sunday, without more ado. But, instead of
that, I had a good little Sister of Charity; and wasn't that alone
worth getting a bullet through one's arm?'

Aunt Catharine was shuddering thankfully through the narration, when
James came down, his brow unclouded, but his manner still agitated, as
if a burthen had been taken away, and he hardly knew how to realize his
freedom from the weight.

Mrs. Frost could not part with her boy, and Jane Beckett evidently had
a spite against 'they French bandages;' so that Louis only talked of
going home enough to get himself flattered and coaxed into remaining at
No. 5, as their patient.

The two young men went in the afternoon to inquire after the Conway
party, when they found that her ladyship was lying down, but Isabel,
who had been summoned from a wholesale conflagration of all the MS.
relating to the fantastic Viscount, brought down Miss King, apparently
to converse for her; for she did little except blush, and seemed unable
to look at either of the friends.

As they took leave, Louisa came into the room with a message that mamma
hoped to see Mr. Frost Dynevor to-morrow, and trusted that he had made
no engagements for the holidays.

James murmured something inaudible, and ran down stairs, snarling at
Louis as he turned to the Miss Faithfulls' door, and telling him he
wanted to obtain a li