startled, she
had a most beautiful face.

"'I didn't know it was you, sir, I couldn't think who could be digging
in the garden at this time of night, and I grew frightened.'

"'Mrs. Durham,' said the Alderman earnestly, 'I was digging a grave for
the dead pet of this small piece of humanity here, who will henceforth
be one of your special charges.'

"Mrs. Durham glanced at the Alderman rather in amazement, I thought, as
if he had suddenly taken leave of his senses, but she looked at me as
she has ever done in a most kindly way.

"'Skylark,' said the Alderman, 'this is Mrs. Durham, my housekeeper.'
Perhaps the Alderman had seen the expression upon Mrs. Durham's face,
and had interpreted it correctly, for he added, 'Mrs. Durham, I am
somewhat ashamed to say that in the grave of a faithful and most
devoted creature I have here buried metaphorically, for good and all,
as many of the reprehensible habits of my old life as I can cast at
once, therefore, if I seem to you to be very different in the future,
you may know there is a good reason for my being so. Could you
conveniently take this infant and get him something substantial to eat
and drink, and see he is put to bed?'

"Mrs. Durham said, 'Very well, sir,' and taking my hand led me into the
house; but she still looked amazed, as if she had seen a ghost, I
thought.

"A good many other people, I fancy, must have looked amazed the next
day, when in the Alderman's big City offices all the clerks found that
their salaries were to be raised. I rather imagine the office boy was
the most astonished of all, for upon discovering that his master had
raised his weekly remuneration to a pound a week, he was heard to
exclaim, 'Well, that knocks all, that is if the Governor hasn't got
softening of the brain!'

"The Alderman didn't stop there by a long way, for I know that all the
servants in his house commenced to have a different time of it, and his
thoughtfulness, as far as I was concerned, was more than wonderful.

"I remember a few days after my arrival he called a council of war with
Mrs. Durham, at which I was present, and I may say in passing, that
Mrs. Durham and I were by this time fast friends.

"'There is one thing that must be done at once, Mrs. Durham,' I
remember him saying during that important interview; 'the youngster
must go at once to school. Now the difficulty is this: I don't want
him to start at a disadvantage from the very beginning, and speaking as