n Maitland, Godfrey's hero, that brought him
home! Did Godfrey know who he was?'

'I don't think so; I'm sure Nancy didn't. I'm not sure whether he's
quite like what I expected, Angel.'

Angel scarcely answered, there was not much room for any one except
Godfrey in her thoughts at that moment. Penelope came in presently
with a log for the fire, and an air of severe disapproval about her,
and asked stiffly whether the poor dear young gentleman upstairs were
to have any supper or not. Angel ordered bread-and-milk very quietly,
but in such a way that Penny went out of the room with no more than a
half-suppressed snort.

'She hates me,' sighed Angel sorrowfully; 'I wonder if Godfrey does.'

'He isn't such a stupid,' said Betty stoutly; and they sat together
silent in the twilight, missing the little figure that always squeezed
up between them during that idle half-hour--''twixt the gloaming and
the mirk.' At last Angel stood up and said, almost appealingly:

'Betty, don't you think I might go to him now?'

'Angel dear, I've been biting my tongue for ever so long to keep from
saying it. I'm quite sure you might.'

Angel waited for no more. She was upstairs directly and pausing at
Godfrey's door. How would he meet her? Would he be sulky? Would he
refuse to speak to her? She hesitated with her fingers on the handle.
Then she heard Godfrey's voice inside. He seemed to be saying his
lessons.

'England is an island; an island is a piece of land, and I'm not going
to say what it is surrounded by, but I know. France is a country, and
the capital of it is Paris, and I'm not going to say what there is
between France and England, nor what there are sailing about there, but
I know.'

'Godfrey,' said Angelica softly in the doorway.

'Aunt Angel!' and a pair of arms were stretched out in the dusk, and
Angel's head drawn down until her face was close to Godfrey's own.

'Aunt Angel, Aunt Angel dear, I can't see you in the dark, but I'm
feeling your cheeks to see if they are thin. Do you feel at all as if
your heart was cracking? Promise me you and Aunt Betty won't be like
that Aunt Jane.'

'We shall both be very happy, Godfrey, if you are sorry for being
naughty, not only for vexing us,' said Angel with a deep breath of
relief.

'I am,' said Godfrey eagerly; 'I won't again. I've begun directly
beginning at the right end. Did you hear me beginning at the right
end, Aunt Angel?'

'The right end of what, de