ou no heed to me, Miss Erema, when you see me a-whimpering in and
out while I am about it. It makes my chest go easy, miss, I do assure
you, though not at the time of life to understand it. All they children
was to have sat up for the sake of their dear father, as I said just
now; but because of their grandfather all was ordered back. And back
they come, as good as gold, with Master George at the head of them, and
asked me what milk-teeth was. Grandpa had said that 'a dinner was no
dinner if milk-teeth were allowed at it.' The hard old man, with his own
teeth false! He deserved to sit down to no other dinner--and he never
did, miss.

"You may be sure that I had enough to do to manage all the little
ones and answer all their questions; but never having seen a live lord
before, and wanting to know if the children would be like him before
so very long, I went quietly down stairs, and the biggest of my dears
peeped after me. And then, by favor of the parlor-maid--for they kept
neither butler nor footman now--I saw the Lord Castlewood, sitting at
his ease, with a glass of port-wine before him, and my sweet mistress
(the Captain's wife, and your mother, if you understand, miss) doing her
very best, thinking of her children, to please him and make the polite
to him. To me he seemed very much to be thawing to her--if you can
understand, miss, what my meaning is--and the Captain was looking at
them with a smile, as if it were just what he had hoped for. From my own
eyesight I can contradict the lies put about by nobody knows who, that
the father and the son were at hot words even then.

"And I even heard my master, when they went out at the door, vainly
persuading his father to take such a bed as they could offer him.
And good enough it would have been for ten lords; for I saw nothing
wonderful in him, nor fit to compare any way with the Captain. But he
would not have it, for no other reason of ill-will or temper, but only
because he had ordered his bed at the Moonstock Inn, where his coach and
four were resting.

"'I expect you to call me in the morning, George,' I heard him say, as
clear as could be, while his son was helping his coat on. 'I am glad I
have seen you. There are worse than you. And when the times get better,
I will see what I can do.'

"With him this meant more than it might have done; for he was not a man
of much promises, as you might tell by his face almost, with his nose
so stern, and his mouth screwed do