r," her father's friend
answered, softly, "unless it is your own good self, with the kindness
of the Lord to help you. One of the best things to begin with is to help
somebody else, if you can, and lead yourself away into another person's
troubles. Is there any one here very miserable?"

"None that I can think of half so miserable as I am. There is great
excitement, but no misery. Miss Twemlow has recovered her Lord
Mayor--the gentleman that wore that extraordinary coat--oh, I forgot,
you were not here then. And although he has had a very sad time of it,
every one says that the total want of diet will be much better for him
than any mere change. I am ashamed to be talking of such trifles now;
but I respect that man, he was so straightforward. If my brother Frank
had been at all like him, we should never have been as we are this day."

"My dear, you must not blame poor Frank. He would not come down to the
dinner because he hated warlike speeches. But he has seen the error of
his ways. No more treasonable stuff for him. He thought it was large,
and poetic, and all that, like giving one's shirt to an impostor. All
of us make mistakes sometimes. I have made a great many myself, and
have always been the foremost to perceive them. But your own brave
lover--have you forgotten him? He fought like a hero, I am told;
and nothing could save his life except that he wore a new-fashioned
periwig."

"I would rather not talk of him now, Lord Nelson, although he had no
periwig. I am deeply thankful that he escaped; and no doubt did his
best, as he was bound to do. I try to be fair to everybody, but I cannot
help blaming every one, when I come to remember how blind we have been.
Captain Stubbard must have been so blind, and Mrs. Stubbard a great deal
worse, and worst of all his own aunt, Mrs. Twemlow. Oh, Lord Nelson, if
you had only stopped here, instead of hurrying away for more glory! You
saw the whole of it; you predicted everything; you even warned us
again in your last letter! And yet you must go away, and leave us to
ourselves; and this is how the whole of it has ended."

"My dear child, I will not deny that the eye of Nelson has a special
gift for piercing the wiles of the scoundrelly foe. But I was under
orders, and must go. The nation believed that it could not do without
me, although there are other men every bit as good, and in their own
opinion superior. But the enemy has never been of that opinion; and a
great deal depe