sure.'

Mrs. Hervey saw that Miss Ward did not wish to say any more before the
children. Her face fell a little.

'I am afraid,' she thought to herself, 'that Justin may have been
unmanageable, but I shall hear about it afterwards if there is anything
that must be told. Pat,' she went on to herself, 'looks wonderfully
bright and cheerful, more like what he used to be when Mattie was here.
I do hope it will turn out nicely about little Rosamond coming.'

CHAPTER VII

NANCE'S STORY

The next day Mrs. Hervey drove over to Caryll Place, where she had a
long talk with her sister, and made acquaintance with little Rosamond.

'She is a sweet little girl,' she said, when she and Aunt Mattie were by
themselves. 'I do hope it will answer for her to come over to us, as we
had thought of. Even though she would be mostly with the little ones,
you could let her spend a day now and then with all the boys, I hope,
Mattie? It would be so good for them, and I _think_, I _hope_ they would
not be too rough for her. They must have been unusually unruly
yesterday.'

Mrs. Caryll hesitated. She was anxious not to disappoint her sister, as
she looked up in her face with her gentle, pleading brown eyes--eyes so
like Archie's. Mrs. Hervey was several years older than Aunt Mattie, and
yet in some ways she seemed younger. There was something almost
child-like about her which made it difficult to believe that she was the
mother of the five sturdy boys. And to tell the truth, she often felt
overwhelmed by them. 'If only one of them had been a girl!' she used to
say to herself. 'She would have had such a softening influence upon the
others!' and she had hailed with delight the prospect of little Rosamond
making one of the Moor Edge party to some extent for a time.

'You're not thinking of giving it up?' she went on anxiously.

'No,' replied Aunt Mattie. 'I think now that Rosamond herself would be
very disappointed. Her uncle said something to her last night which I
see has made a great impression upon her. She really wants to be a
sister to them all, for the time. But I think it _will_ be necessary for
you--or his father rather--to speak very seriously to Justin. I am
afraid there is a touch of the bully about him which seems to have got
worse of late, and it is such a bad example for the younger ones.'

'Of course it is,' Mrs. Hervey agreed. 'We have been speaking to him
this morning about his rudeness to Miss Ward while we were aw