m, but
he grew too eager about the book; and at last she rather advanced the
time for dressing for dinner, both for herself and Henrietta, and
sent Bennet to sit with him, hoping thus perforce to reduce him to a
quiescent state. He was by this means a little calmed for the rest of
the evening; but so wakeful and restless a night ensued, that he began
to be alarmed, and fully came to the conclusion that Philip Carey was
in the right after all. Towards morning, however, a short sleep
visited him, and he awoke at length quite sufficiently refreshed to be
self-willed as ever; and, contrary to advice, insisted on leaving his
bed at his usual hour.

Philip Carey came at about twelve o'clock, and was disappointed as well
as surprised to find him so much more languid and uncomfortable, as
he could not help allowing that he felt. His pulse, too, was
unsatisfactory; but Philip thought the excitement of the interview
with Alex well accounted for the sleepless night, as well as for the
exhaustion of the present day: and Fred persuaded himself to believe so
too.

Henrietta did not like to leave him to-day, but she was engaged to take
a ride with grandpapa, who felt as if the little Mary of years long gone
by was restored to him, when he had acquired a riding companion in
his granddaughter. Mrs. Langford undertook to sit with Fred, and Mrs.
Geoffrey Langford, who had been at first afraid that she would be
too bustling a nurse for him just now, seeing that he was evidently
impatient to be left alone with her, returned to Mrs. Frederick
Langford, resolving, however, not to be long absent.

In that interval Mrs. Langford brought in the inviting glass, and Fred,
in spite of his good sense, could not resist it. Perhaps the recent
irritation of Philip's last visit made him more willing to act in
opposition to his orders. At any rate, he thought of little save of
swallowing it before Aunt Geoffrey should catch him in the fact, in
which he succeeded; so that grandmamma had time to get the tell-tale
glass safely into the store-closet just as Mrs. Frederick Langford's
door was opened at the other end of the passage.

Fred's sofa cushions were all too soft or too hard that afternoon,--too
high or too low; there was a great mountain in the middle of the sofa,
too, so that he could not lie on it comfortably. The room was chilly
though the fire was hot, and how grandmamma did poke it! Fred thought
she did nothing else the whole afternoon; and