ght so easily have gained.
Ah, Ethel, Sir Matthew Fleet never came near him in ability. But not one
word to interfere with me would he say, and--how I have longed to meet
him again, after parting in my selfish, unfeeling gladness; and now I
have nothing to do for him, but show him how little I was to be trusted
with her."

Ethel never knew how to deal with these occasional bursts of grief, but
she said that she thought Dr. Spencer was very much pleased to have met
with him, and delighted with the children.

"Ah! well, you are her children," said Dr. May, with his hand on Ethel's
shoulder.

So they went downstairs, and found Mary making tea; and Margaret,
fearing Dr. Spencer was overwhelmed with his young admirers--for Aubrey
and Gertrude were one on each knee, and Blanche standing beside him,
inflicting on him a catalogue of the names and ages of all the eleven.

"Ethel has introduced you, I see," said Dr. May.

"Ay, I assure you, it was an alarming introduction. No sooner do I enter
your garden, than I hear that I am in the midst of the Forty Thieves.
I find a young lady putting the world to death, after the fashion of
Hamlet--and, looking about to find what I have lost, I find this urchin
has robbed me of my name--a property I supposed was always left to
unfortunate travellers, however small they might be chopped themselves."

"Well, Aubrey boy, will you make restitution?"

"It is my name," said Aubrey positively; for, as his father added, "He
is not without dread of the threat being fulfilled, and himself left to
be that Anon who, Blanche says, writes so much poetry."

Aubrey privately went to Ethel, to ask her if this were possible; and
she had to reassure him, by telling him that they were "only in fun."

It was fun with a much deeper current though; for Dr. Spencer was
saying, with a smile, between gratification and sadness, "I did not
think my name would have been remembered here so long."

"We had used up mine, and the grandfathers', and the uncles', and began
to think we might look a little further a-field," said Dr. May. "If I
had only known where you were, I would have asked you to be the varlet's
godfather; but I was much afraid you were nowhere in the land of the
living."

"I have but one godson, and he is coffee-coloured! I ought to have
written; but, you see, for seven years I thought I was coming home."

Aubrey had recovered sufficiently to observe to Blanche, "That was
almost as bad as Uly