nd flakes of dark foliage over the sloping lawn, one
branch so near the window as to invite adventurous exits, and a little
boat lying moored in the dancing water below.

'Perfect!' said Aubrey. 'What fish there must lie in the mill tail!'

'Ay, I mean to have a try at them some of these days, I should like you
to come and help, but perhaps--Ha, little Mab, do you wonder what I'm
after so long? Here's a friend for you: as the little dog danced
delighted round him, and paid Aubrey her affectionate respects. Her
delicate drawing-room beauty did not match with the spacious but
neglected-looking room whence she issued. It had three great
uncurtained windows looking into the court, with deep window-seats,
olive-coloured painted walls, the worse for damp and wear, a small
amount of old-fashioned solid furniture, and all Leonard's individual
goods, chiefly disposed of in a cupboard in the wall, but Averil's
beautiful water-coloured drawings hung over the chimney. To Aubrey's
petted home-bred notions it was very bare and dreary, and he could not
help exclaiming, 'Well, they don't lodge you sumptuously!'

'I don't fancy many clerks in her Majesty's dominions have so big and
airy an apartment to boast of,' said Leonard. 'Let's see these flies
of yours.'

Their mysteries occupied the boys for some space; but Aubrey returned
to the charge. 'What is it that Hardy says you'll never put up with,
Leonard?'

'What did the old fellow say?' asked Leonard, laughing; and as Aubrey
repeated the conversation, ending with the oracular prediction, he
laughed again, but said proudly, 'He'll see himself wrong then. I'll
put up with whatever I've undertaken.'

'But what does he mean?'

'Serving one's apprenticeship, I suppose,' said Leonard; 'they all
think me a fine gentleman, and above the work, I know, though I've
never stuck at anything yet. If I take to the business, I suppose it
is capable of being raised up to me--it need not pull me down to it,
eh?'

'There need be no down in the case,' said Aubrey. 'My father always
says there is no down except in meanness and wrong. But,' as if that
mention brought a recollection to his mind, 'what o'clock is it? I
must not stay much longer.'

'I'll walk a bit of the way home with you,' said Leonard, 'but I must
be back by five for dinner. I go to rifle practice two days in the
week, and I don't like to miss the others, for Sam's often out, and the
poor old man does not like bein