various things. Make me out a list. The Copperheads
have a son, I believe. Did you see him at that fine ball of yours?"

"Oh! papa, he danced with me twice; he was very kind," said Ursula, with
a blush; "and he danced all the night with Miss Beecham. It must be a
falsehood about her being old Tozer's granddaughter. Mr. Clarence
Copperhead was always by her side. I think Mrs. Hurst must have made it
all up out of her own head."

Mr. May gave a little short laugh.

"Poor Mrs. Hurst!" he said, recovering his temper; "how bitter you all
are against her. So he danced with you twice? You must try to make him
comfortable, Ursula, if he comes here."

"Is Mr. Clarence Copperhead coming here?"

Ursula was struck dumb by this piece of news. The grand house in
Portland Place, and all Sophy Dorset's questions and warnings, came
suddenly back to her mind. She blushed fiery red; she could not tell
why. Coming here! How strange it would be, how extraordinary, to have to
order dinner for him, and get his room in order, and have him in the
drawing-room in the evenings! How should she know what to say to him? or
would papa keep him always at work, reading Greek or something
downstairs? All this flashed through her mind with the rapidity of
lightning. Mr. May made no reply. He was walking up and down the room
with his hands behind him, as was his habit when he was "busy." Being
busy was separated from being angry by the merest visionary line in Mr.
May's case; his children never ventured on addressing him at such
moments, and it is impossible to describe how glad they were when he
withdrew to his own room before Reginald's return; but not a minute too
soon. The young man came back, looking black as night. He threw himself
into a chair, and then he got up again, and began also to walk about the
room like his father. At first he would make no reply to the questions
of the girls.

"It is exactly what I expected," he said; "just what I looked for. I
knew it from the first moment."

It was Janey, naturally, who had least patience with this unsatisfactory
utterance.

"If it was just what you expected, and you looked for it all the time,
why should you make such a fuss now?" she cried. "I declare, for all you
are young, and we are fond of you, you are almost as bad as papa."

Reginald did not take any notice of this address; he went on repeating
the same words at intervals.

"A child might have known it. Of course, from the beginning