e of these arrivals, who on his side, after
a hasty greeting to the servant who met him on the platform, hurried to
the carriage, and sprang into it. The two faces, exactly alike in form,
complexion, and features, were for one moment pressed together, then
withdrawn, in the consciousness of the publicity of the scene, but the
hands remained locked together, and earnest was the tone of the "Well,
Fred!" "Well, Henrietta!" which formed the greeting of the twin brother
and sister.

"And was not mamma well enough to come?" asked Frederick, as the
carriage turned away from the station.

"She was afraid of the heat. She had some business letters to write
yesterday, which teased her, and she has not recovered from them yet;
but she has been very well, on the whole, this summer. But what of your
school affairs, Fred? How did the examination go off?"

"I am fourth, and Alex Langford fifth. Every one says the prize will lie
between us next year."

"Surely," said Henrietta, "you must be able to beat him then, if you are
before him now."

"Don't make too sure, Henrietta," said Frederick, shaking his head,
"Langford is a hard-working fellow, very exact and accurate; I should
not have been before him now if it had not been for my verses."

"I know Beatrice is very proud of Alexander," said Henrietta, "she would
make a great deal of his success."

"Why of his more than of that of any other cousin?" said Frederick with
some dissatisfaction.

"O you know he is the only one of the Knight Sutton cousins whom she
patronizes; all the others she calls cubs and bears and Osbaldistones.
And indeed, Uncle Geoffrey says he thinks it was in great part owing to
her that Alex is different from the rest. At least he began to think
him worth cultivating from the time he found him and Busy Bee perched
up together in an apple-tree, she telling him the story of Alexander the
Great. And how she always talks about Alex when she is here."

"Is she at Knight Sutton?"

"Yes, Aunt Geoffrey would not come here, because she did not wish to
be far from London, because old Lady Susan has not been well. And only
think, Fred, Queen Bee says there is a very nice house to be let close
to the village, and they went to look at it with grandpapa, and he kept
on saying how well it would do for us."

"O, if we could but get mamma there!" said Fred. "What does she say?"

"She knows the house, and says it is a very pleasant one," said
Henrietta; "but that is