r.

"Really, Mr Burne, there is only one thing that I can suggest--"

"And that's what Mrs Dunn here told me."

There was a most extraordinary performance upon the nose, which made
Mrs Dunn raise her hands, and then bring them down heavily in her lap,
and exclaim:

"Bless me, man, don't do that!"

"Ah, Mrs Dunn," cried the lawyer; "what have you been about? Nothing
to do but attend upon your young master, and you've got him into a state
like this."

"Well of all--"

"Tut tut! hold your tongue, Mrs Dunn, what's gone by can't be recalled.
I've been very busy lately fighting a cousin of the poor boy, who was
trying to get his money."

"And what's the good of his money, sir, if he isn't going to live?"

"Tut tut, Mrs Dunn," said the lawyer, blowing his nose more softly,
"but he is. I telegraphed to Oxford last night for Professor Preston to
meet me here at eleven this morning. I have had no answer, but he may
come. Eccentric man, Mrs Dunn."

"Why you're never going to have him here to talk the poor boy to death."

"Indeed but I am, Mrs Dunn, for I do not believe what you say is
possible, unless done by a woman--an old woman," said the lawyer looking
at the old lady fixedly.

"Well I'm sure!" exclaimed Mrs Dunn, and the doctor rose.

"You had better get that prescription made up, Mrs Dunn, and go on as
before."

"One moment, doctor," said the lawyer, and he drew him aside for a brief
conversation to ensue.

"Bless me! very sad," said the lawyer; and then, as Mrs Dunn showed the
doctor out, the old gentleman took some more snuff, and then performed
upon his nose in one of the windows; opposite the fire; in one corner;
then in another; and then he was finishing with a regular coach-horn
blast when he stopped half-way, and stared, for Mrs Dunn was standing
in the doorway with her large florid cap tilted forward in consequence
of her having stuck her fingers in her ears.

"Could you hear me using my handkerchief, Mrs Dunn?" said the lawyer.

"Could I hear you? Man alive!" cried the old lady, in a tone full of
withering contempt, "could I hear _that_!"

CHAPTER TWO.

THE SECOND GUARDIAN.

"That!" to which Mrs Dunn alluded was a double knock at the front door;
a few minutes later the maid ushered in a tall broad-shouldered man of
about forty. His hair was thin upon the crown, but crisp and grizzled,
and its spareness seemed due to the fact that nature required so much
stuff to keep up the suppl