ter and a few
rusks." As in a dream, I was undressed, my face and hands washed, my
prayers said in a somewhat perfunctory fashion, and my evening hymn
commuted in consideration of my fatigues for the beautiful verse, "I
will lay me down in peace, and take my rest," etc.; and by the time
that I sank luxuriously between the clean sheets, I was almost
sufficiently restored to appreciate the dainty appearance of my room.
Then Aunt Maria brought me the hot wine and water flavoured with
sleep-giving cloves, and Nurse folded my clothes, and tucked me up,
and left me, with the friendly reflection of the lamps without to keep
me company.

I do not think I had really been to sleep, but I believe I was dozing,
when I fancied that I heard the familiar sound of Rubens lapping water
from the toilette jug in my room at home. Just conscious that I was
not there, and that Rubens could not be here, the sound began to
trouble me. At first I was too sleepy to care to look round. Then as I
became more awake and the sound not less distinct, I felt fidgety and
frightened, and at last called faintly for Nurse Bundle.

Then the sound stopped. I could hardly breathe, and had just resolved
upon making a brave sally for assistance, when--plump! _something_
alighted on my bed, and, wildly impossible as it seemed, Rubens
himself waggled up to my pillow, and began licking my face as if his
life depended on laying my nose and all other projecting parts of my
countenance flat with my cheeks.

How he had got to London we never knew. As he made an easy escape from
the coach-house at Dacrefield, it was always supposed that he simply
followed the carriage, and had the wit to hide himself when we
stopped on the road. He was terribly tired. He might well be thirsty!

I levied large contributions on the box of rusks which Aunt Maria had
left by my bedside, for his benefit, and he supped well.

Then he curled himself up in his own proper place at my feet. He was
intensely self-satisfied, and expressed his high idea of his own
exploit by self-gratulatory "grumphs," as after describing many mystic
circles, and scraping up the fair Marseilles quilt on some plan of his
own, he brought his nose and tail together in a satisfactory position
in his nest, and we passed our first night in London in dreamless and
profound sleep.

CHAPTER V

MY COUSINS--MISS BLOMFIELD--THE BOY IN BLACK

My first letter to my father was the work of several days, and as my