must not call it a 'crib' for all that. It sheltered your father
once, and he carried a very high head, Tony."

"And for that very reason, dear mother, I'm going to make it our
own home henceforth,--without you 'd rather go and live in that old
manor-house on the Nore; they tell me it is beautiful."

"It was there your father was born, and I long to see it," said she,
with emotion. "Who 's that coming in at the gate, Tony?"

"It is Dolly," said he, rising, and going to the door to meet her.

"My dear Dolly," cried he, as he embraced her, and kissed her on either
cheek; "this brings me back to old times at once."

If it was nothing else, the total change in Tony's appearance abashed
her; the bronzed and bearded man, looking many years older than he was,
seemed little like the Tony she had seen last; and so she half shrank
back from his embrace, and, with a flushed cheek and almost constrained
manner, muttered some words of recognition.

"How well you are looking," said he, staring at her, as she took off her
bonnet, "and the nice glossy hair has all grown again, and I vow it is
brighter and silkier than ever."

"What's all this flattery about bright een and silky locks I'm listening
to?" said the old lady, coming out laughing into the ball.

"It's Master Tony displaying his foreign graces at my expense, ma'am,"
said Dolly, with a smile.

"Would you have known him again, Dolly? Would you have thought that
great hairy creature there was our Tony?"

"I think he is changed,--a good deal changed," said Dolly, without
looking at him.

"I did n't quite like it at first; but I'm partly getting used to it
now; and though the Colonel never wore a beard on his upper lip, Tony's
more like him now than ever." The old lady continued to ramble on about
the points of resemblance between the father and son, and where certain
traits of manner and voice were held in common; and though neither Tony
nor Dolly gave much heed to her words, they were equally grateful to her
for talking.

"And where 's the doctor, Dolly? Are we not to see him at dinner?"

"Not to-day, ma'am; he's gone over to M'Laidlaw's to make some
arrangements about this scheme of ours,--the banishment, he calls it."

"And is it possible, Dolly, that he can seriously contemplate such a
step?" asked Tony, gravely.

"Yes; and very seriously too."

"And you, Dolly; what do you say to it?"

"I say to it what I have often said to a difficulty, what the old Sco