yce had much
trouble to induce her to stay; but it was quite wonderful the way in
which the child took to her, and so a room was got ready for them both,
and she was comfortably settled, almost, as the housekeeper said, "as if
she was a lady, though for the matter of that, Doctor Banks knew more
about her than he said." At any rate Doctor Banks said the next day,
after he had had a little conversation with the new nurse, that she was
thoroughly trustworthy, and that he himself had known her father, who
once held a very respectable position in the city. So Mrs. Harris became
an inmate at the dim old house, and her charge throve under her care.

He was a bonny boy, and every day his little baby ways became of so
great interest to the lonely old man, that he was never happy after
business hours until he had the little fellow in the room. He never
stayed at his old tavern now for more than half an hour beyond the time
it took him to eat his dinner, and even went so far as to tell two or
three of his friends what he had done, and invite them home to see the
child, in whom--they being themselves fathers of families--they could
see nothing extraordinary, and wondered amongst themselves at old
Dryce's strange infatuation.

When the boy at last grew able to crawl about, and even to walk from
chair to chair, he seemed to have so grown to the old man's heart that
Dryce became subject to a kind of transformation. His laugh grew more
mellow, as though the violin had been laid near the fire, and played
upon gently; a dozen old and forgotten picture-books were disinterred
from some box, and toys strewed the floor of the dingy sitting-room. At
about this time Mrs. Harris was for a week or more strangely agitated by
a letter which was brought to her one morning, and came as she said from
her husband, who had been for some time in Australia. Upon her recovery
Mr. Dryce inquired a little into her husband's circumstances, and
hearing that he was endeavouring to establish an agency in Sydney, wrote
a letter requesting him to make some inquiries about a house to which
Dryce & Co. had made large consignments, but whose promised remittance
had not duly arrived. The old man had other matters to occupy him,
however, for with something like a resumption of his old vigour and his
business habits he had called for his books, for he had had some serious
losses lately, and began to think it necessary to give more personal
attention to the current ac