pointed to Mr Auberly, who had stopped short in the doorway, but who
now advanced and sat down beside the invalid, and put to her several
formal questions in a very stately and stiff manner, with a great
assumption of patronage. But it was evident that he was not accustomed
to the duty of visiting the sick, and, like little boys and girls when
they sit down to write a letter, was very much at a loss what to say!
He began by asking the fairy about her complaint, and exhausted every
point that entered into his imagination in reference to that. Then he
questioned her as to her circumstances; after which he told her that he
had been sent to see her by his daughter Louisa, who was herself very
ill, owing to the effects of a fire in his own house.

At this point the child became interested, and came to his relief by
asking a great many eager and earnest questions about Loo. She knew
about the fire in Beverly Square and its incidents, Willie having often
related them to her during his visits; and she knew Mr Auberly by name,
and was interested in him, but his frigid manner had repelled her, until
he spoke of Loo having sent him to see her.

"Oh, I've been so sorry about Miss Loo, sir," said Ziza, raising her
large eyes full in Mr Auberly's face; "I've heard of her, you know,
from Willie, and when I've been lying all alone here for hours and hours
together, I have wondered how she spent her time, and if there were kind
people about her to keep up her spirits. It's so strange that she and I
should have been both hurt by a fire, an' both of us so different every
way. I _do_ hope she'll get better, sir."

Mr Auberly became suddenly much interested in the fairy, for just as
"love begets love," so does interest beget interest. His feelings
having been roused, his tongue was loosed, and forthwith he enjoyed a
delightful conversation with the intelligent child; not that there was
any remarkable change as to the matter of what was spoken, but there was
a vast change in the manner of speaking it.

Willie also chimed in now and then, and volunteered his opinions in a
way that would have called forth a sharp rebuke from his patron half an
hour before; but he was permitted to speak, even encouraged, now, for
Mr Auberly was being tickled pleasantly; he was having his feelings and
affections roused in a way that he had never thought of or tried before;
he was gathering golden experiences that he had never stooped to touch
before, al