gust--

"How doth the little busy bee--"

Cyril suggested--

"Delight to bark and bite."

"Oh, yes--

"How doth the little busy bee
Delight to bark and bite--

"How _does_ it go on, Cyril?" said Frank.

"To gather honey all the day,
And eat it all the night,"

whispered the audacious brother, conjuring into memory the schoolboy
version of that celebrated poem.

Frank, who was far too much engrossed in his own difficulties to think
of what he was saying, artlessly repeated the words, and opened his
large eyes in amazement, when he was greeted by a shout of laughter from
Cyril, and a little shriek of indignation from Miss Sprong, which
combined sounds started Lady Vinsear from the doze into which she had
fallen, and ended in the summary ejectment of the young offenders.

The next day, to their own great relief and delight, they were sent home
in disgrace; and knowing that their mother would not be angry with them
for a piece of childish gaiety under such trying circumstances, they
were surprised and pained to see how grave she and Violet looked when
they told their story. But Mrs Home's thoughts had reverted to Julian,
and she knew Miss Sprong too well not to be aware that she had designs
on Lady Vinsear's property, and would excite against Julian any ill-will
she could.

That her fears were not unfounded was proved by the fact that, in the
middle of trial-week, Julian received an altogether intolerable epistle
from Miss Sprong, written, she said, "at the express request and
dictation of his esteemed aunt," calling him to account for this little
incident in a way that, (to use Lillyston's expression), instantly "put
him on his hind legs." He read a part of this letter to Lillyston, and,
with his own comments, it ran thus:--

"Lady Vinsear desires me to say," (Hem! I doubt that very much),
"that the rudeness of those two little boys, to say nothing of their
great immorality and impiety," (I say, that's coming it too strong, or
rather too _Sprong_), "is such as to reflect great discredit on the
influences to which they have been _lately_--"

"By Jove! this is too bad," said Julian, passionately; "when she adds
innuendoes against my mother to her other malice--I won't stand it,"
and, without reading farther, he tossed the letter into the fire,
watching with vindictive eyes its complete consumption--

"There goes the squire--revered, illustrious spark!
And there--no less illust