ow, Uncle Lord! this ain't the first scrape you've got me out
of; fix it up with him, can't you?"

"It is my duty to save the honor of the name; but you are bent on
destroying it. Will you please to come into the house with my nephew,
and oblige me?" Betterson said to Jack.

"Certainly, if you wish it," Jack replied. "Get down, Radcliff. Be
quiet, Lion! I was never in so hard a place in my life," he said to the
boys, as they followed Rad and his uncle into the house. "I never
dreamed of his being your cousin!"

"He's a wild fellow,--nothing very bad about him, only he's just full
of the Old Harry," said Rufe. "I guess father'll settle it, somehow."

Meanwhile, Mrs. Betterson had retired to her room, where Vinnie was
engaged, with fan and hartshorn, in restoring--not her consciousness,
for that she had not lost, but her equanimity.

"Lavinia!" she said brokenly, at intervals, "Lavinia dear! don't think I
intended to deceive you. It was, perhaps, too much the ideal Radcliff I
described to you,--the Betterson Radcliff, the better Betterson
Radcliff, if I may so speak; for he is, after all, you know, a--but that
is the agony of it! The name is disgraced forever! Fan me, Lavinia
dear!"

"I don't see how the act of one person should disgrace anybody else,
even of the same name," Vinnie replied.

"But--a Betterson!" groaned Caroline. "My husband's nephew! Brought back
here like a reprobate! The hartshorn, Lavinia dear!"

Hard as it was freely to forgive her sister for holding up to her so
exclusively the "ideal Radcliff" in her conversations, Vinnie continued
to apply the fan and hartshorn, with comforting words, until Link came
in and said that Jack wished her to be present in the other room.

"Don't leave me, Lavinia dear!" said Caroline, feeling herself utterly
helpless without Vinnie's support.

"If we open this door between the rooms, and you sit near it, while I
remain by you,--perhaps that will be the best way," said Vinnie.

The door was opened, showing Jack and Rad and Mr. Betterson seated, and
the boys standing by the outer door. Rad was trying hard to keep up his
appearance of gay spirits, chucking Chokie under the chin, and winking
playfully at Rufe and Wad. But Jack and Lord were serious.

"I have reasons for wanting you to hear this talk, Vinnie," said Jack.
"I was just telling Mr. Betterson that you had met his nephew before,
and he was quite surprised. It seems to me singular that you never told
y