id he would probably
dispose of it in some hiding-place in the garden until his evening
appetite came on. It was well he was a dog of moderation, for there
was great temptation to repeat the entertainment more than was
wholesome for him.

'There, Wynnie,' said Nuttie in a voice of monition, 'Monsieur doesn't
eat all his goodies at once, he keeps them for bedtime.'

It might be perceived that the over-supply of sweets was a matter of
anxiety to the elder sister. To the nurse, who waited in readiness,
Alwyn was consigned for his walk, while his father and sister accepted
Mr. Dutton's invitation to look round his domain. It would have been
small in the country, but it was extensive for the locality, and there
was a perfect order and trimness about the shaven lawn, the little
fountain in the midst, the flower-beds gay with pansies,
forget-me-nots, and other early beauties, and the freshly-rolled gravel
paths, that made Nuttie exclaim: 'Ah! I should have known this for
yours anywhere.'

'I have not had much to do to it,' he said. 'My old aunts had it well
kept up, even when they could only see it from their windows. Their old
gardener still lives in the cottage behind the tool-house, though he is
too infirm for anything but being wheeled about in the sun in their
Bath-chair.'

'You keep a large amount lying idle by retaining it as it is,' said Mr.
Egremont.

'True, but it is well to preserve an oasis here and there.'

Nuttie knew well that it was not for himself alone, and as they entered
the little conservatory, and her eye fell on the row of white
hyacinths, the very scent carried her back to the old times, and her
eyes grew moist while Mr. Dutton was cutting a bouquet for her in
accordance with well-known tastes.

'I shall put them in my room. It will feel like home,' she said, and
then she saw that she had said what her father did not like; for he was
always sensitive as to any reference to her early life.

Mr. Dutton, however, took this opportunity of saying that he had been
backwards and forwards to Micklethwayte several times this spring.

'I hope you are well out of the concern there,' said Mr. Egremont.

'Thank you, sir; I have no share in it at present.'

'So much the better!'

'But I am very anxious about my friends.'

'Ah!' But Mr. Egremont's attention was drawn off at the entrance of
the house by a new-fashioned stove of which Mr. Dutton did the honours,
conducting father and daughter into