nd Aubrey in his
father's arm-chair, his feet over the side, so fast asleep that neither
entrance nor exclamation roused him; the room was pervaded with an
odour of nutmeg and port wine, and a kettle, a decanter, and empty
tumblers told tales. Now the Doctor was a hardy and abstemious man, of
a water-drinking generation; and his wife's influence had further
tended to make him--indulgent as he was--scornful of whatever savoured
of effeminacy or dissipation, so his look and tone were sharp, and
disregardful of Aubrey's slumbers.

'We got wet through,' said Tom; 'he was done up, had a shivering fit,
and I tried to prevent mischief.'

'Hm! said the Doctor, not mollified. 'Cold is always the excuse. But
another time don't teach your brother to make this place like a fast
man's rooms.'

Ethel was amazed at Tom's bearing this so well. With the slightest
possible wrinkle of the skin of his forehead, he took up the decanter
and carried it off to the cellaret.

'How that boy sleeps!' said his father, looking at him.

'He has had such bad nights!' said Ethel. 'Don't be hard on Tom, he is
very good about such things, and would not have done it without need.
He is so careful of Aubrey!'

'Too careful by half,' said the Doctor, smiling placably as his son
returned. 'You are all in a league to spoil that youngster. He would
be better if you would not try your hand on his ailments, but would
knock him about.'

'I never do that without repenting it,' said Tom; then, after a pause,
'It is not spirit that is wanting, but you would have been frightened
yourself at his state of exhaustion.'

'Of collapse, don't you mean?' said the Doctor, with a little lurking
smile. 'However, it is vexatious enough; he had been gaining ground
all the year, and now he is regularly beaten down again.'

'Suppose I was to take him for a run on the Continent?'

'What, tired of the hospital?'

'A run now and then is duty, not pleasure,' replied Tom, quietly; while
Ethel burnt to avert from him these consequences of his peculiar
preference for appearing selfish.

'So much for railway days! That will be a new doctrine at
Stoneborough. Well, where do you want to go?'

'I don't want to go anywhere.'

Ethel would not have wondered to see him more sullen than he looked at
that moment. It was lamentable that those two never could understand
each other, and that either from Tom's childish faults, his resemblance
to his grandfather, or his ha