an is not
as crusty as he looks."

Charlie had handed to Mr. Tufton a letter which his mother had given
him, and when he returned from a ramble through the streets, he found
that gentleman sitting by the fire, with lights upon a small table
beside him. Upon this Mrs. Marryat's letter lay open.

"So you have soon become tired of the streets of London, Grandnephew!"
he said.

"There is not much to see, sir. The lamps do not burn very brightly,
and the fog is coming on. I thought that, if it grew thicker, I might
lose my way, and in that case I might not have been in at the hour you
named for supper."

"Humph!" the other gentleman grunted. "So your mother has taught you
to be punctual to meals. But, no; boys' appetites teach them to be
punctual then, if never at any other time.

"And why, sir?" he asked severely, "Did my niece not write to me
before?"

"I don't know, sir," Charlie said. "I suppose she did not like--that
is, she didn't think--that is--"

"Think, sir! Like, sir!" said his uncle. "What right had she either to
think or to like? Her duty clearly was to have made me acquainted, at
once, with all the circumstances. I suppose I had a right to say
whether I approved of my grandnieces going tramping about the world as
governesses, or not. It isn't because a woman chooses, by her folly,
to separate herself from her family, that they are to be deprived of
their rights in a matter of this kind. Eh, sir, what do you say to
that?" and Mr. Tufton looked very angry, indeed.

"I don't know, sir," Charlie said. "I have never thought the matter
over."

"Why, sir, suppose she had made you a tinker, sir, and you turned out
a thief, as likely as not you would have done, and you'd been hung,
sir, what then? Am I to have such discredit as this brought upon me,
without my having any option in the matter?"

"I suppose not, sir," Charlie said. "I hope I shouldn't have turned
out a thief, even if I'd been a tinker; but perhaps it was because my
mother feared that this might be the case, that she did give you the
option."

His uncle looked at him keenly; but Charlie, though with some
difficulty, maintained the gravest face.

"It is well she did so," Mr. Tufton said; "very well. If she had not
done so, I should have known the reason why. And you, sir, do you like
the thought of going to India?"

"Yes, Uncle, I like the thought very much, though I would rather, if I
may say so, have gone as a cadet."

"I thought so,"