es.'

'Ay, I thought you would be ready for me. I have had a cold, and I am
come home to shake off the end of it.'

'A cold--not a bad one, I hope?'

'Not very. I wanted Violet to come too, but the boy is poorly.'

'Oh! I hope there is not much the matter?'

'Only teeth, I believe. He is desperately fretful, and she can't attend
to anything else.'

'Well, I hope you are come for a good long visit.'

'I can stay a week.'

'That's right, it will do you good. I was just going to write to you. I
have a great mind to go back with you, if I shall not be in the way.'

'Not at all. It will be famous having you; but what makes you come? To
gratify Fotheringham?'

'I have many reasons. I've got Charlie Layton elected to the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, and I must take him there.'

'I'm not going to take him! 'Tis enough to have to carry about one's own
babies, without other people's.'

'We'll settle that,' said Theodora. 'Will you walk with me! There is no
one at home, and I am stupefied with reading French novels to my aunt.
Such horrid things! She has lost her taste for the natural, and likes
only the extravagant. I have been at it ever since luncheon, and at
last, when the wretches had all charcoaled themselves to death, I came
out to breathe fresh air and purity.'

'Where's the Piper!'

'Piper no longer. Have you not heard?'

'Not a word since Percy announced that my aunt and Harrison had come to
a split about the orchids.'

'You have great things to hear. Harrison got a magnificent appointment,
as he calls it--situation is not grand enough--to some botanic gardens;
splendid salary. Nothing hindered the wedding but Miss Piper's dread of
my aunt. It was not only that she could not tell her, but she could not
face her after it was told, though I offered to undertake that. So the
upshot was, that for very cowardice she preferred stealing the match and
taking French leave. It was a silly piece of business; but I could not
help that, and they were accountable to no one. I promised to announce
it to my aunt when the deed was done, and satisfied the poor little
woman's conscience by undertaking to be my aunt's white nigger till she
bought another.'

'If that's not self-devotion, I don't know what is,' said Arthur. 'I
trust she has got one.'

'She comes to-morrow.'

'How was the wedding managed?'

'Harrison came with his license from Whitford, and I walked forth with
sal volatile in one hand and salts in the other