t, as of course I shall want you to know him." Harry became
a little perplexed. How far might these family ramifications be supposed
to go? Would he be welcomed, as one of the household, to the hearth of
Mrs. Jones; and if of Mrs. Jones, then of Mrs. Jones's brother? His
mental inquiries, however, in this direction, were soon ended by his
finding that Mr. Jones who a bachelor.

Jones, it appeared, was the editor, or sub-editor, or co-editor, of some
influential daily newspaper. "He is a night bird, Harry--" said Mrs.
Burton. She had fallen into the way of calling him Harry at once, but he
could not on that occasion bring himself to call her Cecilia. He might
have done so had not her husband been present, but he was ashamed to do
it before him. "He is a night bird, Harry," said she, speaking of her
brother, "and flies away at nine o'clock that he may go and hoot like an
owl in some dark city haunt that he has. Then, when he is himself asleep
at breakfast time, his hootings are being heard round the town."

Harry rather liked the idea of knowing an editor. Editors were, he
thought, influential people, who had the world very much under their
feet--being, as he conceived, afraid of no men, while other men are very
much afraid of them. He was glad enough to shake Jones by the hand, when
he found that Jones was an editor. But Jones, though he had the face and
forehead of a clever man, was very quiet, and seemed almost submissive
to his sister and brother-in-law.

The dinner was plain, but good, and Harry after a while became happy and
satisfied, although he had come to the house with something almost like
a resolution to find fault. Men, and women also, do frequently go about
in such a mood, having unconscionably from some small circumstance,
prejudged their acquaintances, and made up their mind that their
acquaintances should be condemned. Influenced in this way, Harry had not
intended to pass a pleasant evening, and would have stood aloof and been
cold, had it been possible to him; but he found that it was not
possible; and after a little while he was friendly and joyous, and the
dinner went off very well. There was some wild fowl, and he was
agreeably surprised as he watched the mental anxiety and gastronomic
skill with which Burton went through the process of preparing the gravy,
with lemon and pepper, having in the room a little silver pot, and an
apparatus of fire for the occasion. He would as soon have expected the
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