, dear, it
was expecting too much, though he was an archbishop's son!"

"Yes; and my grandson wrote home for books to read--to be sent out by a
friend, an officer on a river gunboat--I think his name was Judson.
His life has been written by somebody whose books I don't consider at
all suitable for James. And so I went down to the Curates' Aid and got
a list of everything likely to be of service to one who for four years
had been devoid of all means of grace. But I fear they never reached
my poor James. For when he came home, and I asked him about them, he
did not seem ever to have read any of them. But I dare say it was that
Judson's fault. With these naval officer men you never can tell. I
dare say the sailors divided them up among themselves on the voyage
out!"

"Exactly. What we wanted, was, of course, to keep our League select.
No one very swell, but well connected, and all most careful about
appearances----"

"And my grandson in Nigeria brought home a lot of crocodiles and a rare
postage stamp, or a rare crocodile and a lot of postage stamps--I am
not sure which. Anyway, I would not have it. I said he could not keep
both in my house. He must give either to the Zoo. But I don't
know----"

And so on. It was fun, and now I like to remember it, though it does
fill up the pages of my note-book even when I am writing very small.
Still, it is always something to do.

Well, Miss Orrin was dressed just like these ancient hydropathickers.
Only, she was as alert as a fox and as demure as a mouse, in spite of
being in a kind of mourning, with a big jet crucifix on a thick jet
chain. That was the only thing about her that was not as sober and
serious as a fifty-year-old tombstone. She had such a lot of jet
ornaments about her, all cut into symbolic shapes, that she moved with
a clitter-clatter, just like a little dog walking on a chain with
fal-de-rals on its collar.

But, withal, she had such a grave air that I never once thought of
laughing. Miss Aphra was not a person to laugh at in the gayest of
times.

"Miss Stennis," she said, "I know you have not been well received at
the house of your nearest relative. I am acquainted with all the
long-continued ill-usage so unjustly dealt out to your mother and
yourself. Long have I tried my best to bring your grandfather to a
better frame of mind. But he is a dour old man--indurated, impervious
to good influence. But what I was unable to do all these years