, I am sure,' said Mr. Fotheringham. Theodora told him
he was right, and went on exhorting the child; 'Come, I know you can say
it. Try to be good.

'"How doth--"'

'You know I always keep my word, and I have said I will hear you before
either of us goes home.'

'"How doth--"'

'If you please, papa, would you go on? I shall never make her do it with
you all looking on.'

She sat down on a tombstone, and placed the child before her. After
an hour's walk, there was a general exclamation of amusement and
compassion, on seeing Theodora and the child still in the same
positions.

'She will never say it at all now, poor child,' said Violet; 'she
can't--she must be stupefied.'

'Then we had better send down the tent to cover Theodora for the night,'
said Arthur.

'As if Theodora looking at her in that manner was not enough to drive
off all recollection!' said John.

'It is too much!' said Lord Martindale. 'Arthur, go, and tell her it is
high time to go home, and she must let the poor child off.'

Arthur shrugged his shoulders, saying, 'You go, John.'

'Don't you think it might do harm to interfere?' said John to his
father.

'Interfere by no means,' said Arthur. 'It is capital sport. Theodora
against dirty child! Which will you back, Percy? Hollo! where is he? He
is in the thick of it. Come on, Violet, let us be in for the fun.'

'Patience in seven flounces on a monument!' observed Mr. Fotheringham,
in an undertone to Theodora, who started, and would have been angry, but
for his merry smile. He then turned to the child, whose face was indeed
stupefied with sullenness, as if in the resistance she had forgotten the
original cause. 'What! you have not said it all this time? What's your
name? I know you are a Benson, but how do they call you?' said he,
speaking with a touch of the dialect of the village, just enough to show
he was a native.

'Ellen,' said the girl.

'Ellen! that was your aunt's name. You are so like her. I don't think
you can be such a very stupid child, after all. Are you? Suppose you try
again. What is it Miss Martindale wants you to say?'

The child made no answer, and Theodora said, 'The Little Busy Bee.'

'Oh! that's it. Not able to say the Busy Bee? That's a sad story. D'ye
think now I could say it, Ellen?'

'No!' with an astonished look, and a stolid countrified tone.

'So you don't think I'm clever enough! Well, suppose I try, and you set
me right if I make mistakes. "How doth the