"Come, Robin," said I, rising, "I think that you and I will leave them--
Good-bye, granny and Edie; I shall soon see you again."

I paused at the door and looked back.

"Come, Dumps, come."

My doggie wagged his scrumpy tail, cocked his expressive ears, and
glanced from me to his mistress, but did not rise.

"Pompey prefers to remain with me," said Edie; "let him stay."

"Punch is a wise dog," observed Robin, as we descended the stairs
together; "but you don't ought to let your spirits go down, sir," he
added, with a profoundly sagacious glance, "'cause, of course, he can't
'elp 'isself now. He'll 'ave to stick to you wotever 'appens--an' to me
too!"

I understood the meaning of his last words, and could not help smiling
at the presumptuous certainty with which he assumed that he was going to
follow my fortunes.

Is it needful to say that when I mentioned what had occurred to Dr
McTougall that amiable little man opened his eyes to their widest?

"You young dog!" he exclaimed, "was it grateful in you to repay all my
kindness by robbing me in this sly manner of my governess--nay, I may
say, of my daughter, for I have long ago considered her such, and
adopted her in my heart?"

"It was not done slily, I assure you," said I; "indeed, I fought against
the catastrophe with all my might--but I--I could not help it at last;
it came upon me, as it were, unexpectedly--took me by surprise."

"Humph!" ejaculated the doctor.

"Besides," I added, "you can scarcely call it robbery, for are not you
and I united as partners, so that instead of robbing you, I have, in
reality, created another bond of union between you and Edie?"

"H'm!" said the doctor.

"Moreover," I continued, "it happens most opportunely just now that the
house opposite this one is to let. It is a much smaller and
lower-rented house than this, and admirably suited for a very small
family, so that if I secure it we will scarcely, I may say, have to quit
your roof."

"Ah! to be sure," returned the doctor, falling in with my humour, "we
will have the pleasure of overlooking and criticising each other and our
respective households. We may sit at the windows and converse across
the street in fine weather, or flatten our noses on the glass, and make
faces at each other when the weather is bad. Besides, we can have a
tunnel cut under the street and thus have subterranean communication at
any time of the day or night--and what a charming place that would