st begin. So I
begged and prayed him to forgive me, and then told what I had done, and
he was not so very angry. He only called me a silly child, and said I
did not know what I had done in those few days that I had been left to
myself. So I told him dear granny had had it, and that was all that
signified, and that I never had any right here. Then,' said Clara,
tearfully, 'he began to cry like a child, and said at least she had
died in her own home, and he called me Henry's child: and then Jane
came and turned me out, and wont let me go near him unless I promise to
be good and say nothing. But I must soon; for however she pats him,
and says, 'Don't, Master Oliver,' I see his mind runs on nothing else,
and the doctor says he may soon hear the plans, and be moved.'

'Can you venture to tell him that I am here?'

Before Clara could answer, Jane opened the door--'Miss Clara, your
uncle;' and there she stopped, at the unexpected sight of the brother
and sister still hand in hand. 'Here, Jane, do you see him?' cried
Clara; and James came forward with outstretched hand, but he was not
graciously received.

'Now, Master James, you ain't coming here to worrit your poor uncle?'

'No, indeed, Jane. I am come in the hope of being of some use to him.'

'I'd rather by half it had been Lord Fitzjocelyn,' muttered Jane, 'he
was always quieter.'

'Now, Jane, you should not be so cross,' cried Clara, 'when it is your
own Jemmy, come on purpose to help and comfort us all! You are going
to tell Uncle Oliver, and make him glad to see him, as you know you
are.'

'I know,' said James, 'that last time I was here, I behaved ill enough
to make you dread my presence, Jane; but I have learnt and suffered a
good deal since that time, and I wish for nothing so much as for my
uncle's pardon.'

Mrs. Beckett would have been more impressed, had she ever ceased to
think of Master Jemmy otherwise than as a self-willed but candid boy;
and she answered as if he had been throwing himself on her mercy after
breaking a window, or knocking down Lord Fitzjocelyn--

'Well, sir, that is all you can say. I'm glad you are sorry. I'll see
if I can mention, it to your uncle.'

Off trotted Jane, while Clara's indignation and excited spirits
relieved themselves by a burst of merry laughter, as she hung about her
brother, and begged to hear of the dear old home.

The old servant, in her simplicity, went straight upstairs, and up to
her nursling, as