bryo physician to a
full-grown surgeon--at any rate, it was right by her poor dear Mr. Pugh
to wait.

She need not have feared having Averil as an inmate. Averil talked it
over with Leonard, and determined that no power on earth should make
her live with Mrs. Pugh. If that were necessary to forward his suit,
she would make it plain that she was ready to depart.

'Oh, Leonard, if my uncle were but a nice sort of person, how pleasant
it would be for me and the children to live there, and keep his house;
and I could make him so comfortable, and nurse him!'

'Never, Ave!' cried Leonard; 'don't let the thing be talked of.'

'Oh no, I know it would not do with Samuel there; but should we be too
young for your old scheme of having a cottage together near?'

'I did not know what the Axworthys were like,' returned Leonard.

'But need we see them much?'

'I'll tell you what, Ave, I've heard them both--yes, the old man the
worst of the two--say things about women that made my blood boil.'
Leonard was quite red as he spoke. 'My father never let my mother see
any of the concern, and now I know why. I'll never let you do so.'

'Then there is only one other thing to be done,' said Averil; 'and that
is for me to go back to school as a parlour boarder, and take the
children with me. It would be very good for them, and dear Mrs. Wood
would be very glad to have me.'

'Yes,' said Leonard, 'that is the only right thing, Ave; and the Mays
will say so, too. Have you talked it over with them!'

'No. I hate talking of this thing.'

'Well, you had better get their advice. It is the best thing going!'
said Leonard, with a sigh that sounded as if he wished he had taken it.

But it was not to Averil that he said so. To her he spoke brightly of
serving the time for which he was bound to his uncle; then of making a
fresh engagement, that would open a home to her; or, better still,
suppose Sam did not wish to go on with the business, he might take it,
and make the mill the lovely place it might be. It was to Aubrey May
that the boy's real feelings came out, as, on the Sunday evening, they
slowly wandered along the bank of the river. Aubrey had seen a
specimen of his life at the mill, and had been kept up to the knowledge
of its events, and he well knew that Leonard was heartily sick of it.
That the occupation was uncongenial and tedious in the extreme to a boy
of good ability and superior education--nay, that the drudgery was m