eodora's arm within
that of her eldest brother.

'Thank you for your letter,' said Arthur. 'It did me great good.'

'My impulse was to have set out at once on receiving yours, but I was
obliged to wait to get things into train for going on without me; and
since that there have been delays of steamers.'

'You could not have come at a better time. We only wanted you to make us
complete--'

Arthur was interrupted by a joyous outcry of 'Papa! papa!' from a little
group on the other side of the road into which they were emerging.

'Ay! and who else! Look at this fellow!' cried he, catching from Sarah's
arm, and holding aloft an elf, whose round mouth and eyes were all
laughter, and sturdy limbs all movement, the moment he appeared. 'There!
have we not improved in babies since your time! And here is a round
dumpling that calls itself Anna. And that piece of mischief is
grandmamma's girl, Aunt Theodora's double.'

Those flashing black eyes were not the ideal John had attached to the
name which Arthur had paused to speak; but it would have been hard to be
disappointed by the bright creature, who stood on the raised foot-path,
pretending to hide her face with a bunch of tall foxgloves, and peeping
out behind them to see whether she was noticed.

'The introduction is all on one side,' said Percy. 'Do you know who it
is, Helen?'

Helen stuck her chin into her neck. She would tell her surmise to no
one but Johnnie, who had persuaded Mr. Fotheringham to lift him from
horseback, where he was never at ease with any one but papa. He looked
up smiling: 'Helen thinks it must be Uncle Martindale, because papa is
so glad.'

Helen ran away, but returned for a ride; and when the party, that had
gathered like a snow-ball, came in front of the cottage, Percy was
holding both little sisters on the pony at once, Theodora still leaning
on her eldest brother's arm, Johnnie gravely walking on the foot-path,
studying his uncle, and Arthur, with the young Arthur pulling his
whiskers all the time, was walking forwards and backwards, round and
about his brother, somewhat in the ecstatic aimless fashion of a dog who
meets his master.

He was the first to exclaim, 'There she is! Run on, Johnnie, tell mamma
and grandmamma whom we have here.'

The first greeting was left exclusively to Lady Martindale. When John's
attention was again at liberty, Violet was standing by her husband,
saying, with a sweet smile of playful complaint, 'And you have