recovery, which was very slow, but at
the same time steady. Mrs. Geoffrey Langford stayed with her as long as
he required much nursing; and Henrietta learnt to look upon her, not as
quite a mother, but at any rate as more than an aunt, far more than
she had ever been to her before; and when at length she was obliged to
return to Westminster, it was a great satisfaction to think how soon the
vacation would bring them all back to Knight Sutton.

The holidays arrived, and with them Alexander, who, to his great
disappointment, was obliged to give up all his generous hopes that Fred
would be one of his competitors for the prize, when he found him able
indeed to be with the family, to walk short distances, and to resume
many of his former habits; but still very easily tired, and his head in
a condition to suffer severely from noise, excitement, or application.
Perhaps this was no bad thing for their newly formed alliance, as
Alex had numberless opportunities of developing his consideration and
kindness, by silencing his brothers, assisting his cousin when tired,
and again and again silently giving up some favourite scheme of
amusement when Fred proved to be unequal to it. Even Henrietta herself
almost learned to trust Fred to Alex's care, which was so much less
irritating than her own; and how greatly the Queen Bee was improved is
best shown, when it is related, that neither by word nor look did
she once interrupt the harmony between them, or attempt to obtain the
attention, of which, in fact, she always had as large a share as any
reasonable person could desire.

How fond Fred learnt to be of Alex will be easily understood, and the
best requital of his kindness that he could devise was an offer--a very
adventurous one, as was thought by all who heard of it--to undertake
little Willy's Latin, which being now far beyond Aunt Roger's knowledge,
had been under Alex's care for the holidays. Willy was a very good
pupil on the whole--better, it was said by most, than Alex himself had
been--and very fond of Fred; but Latin grammar and Caesar formed such
a test as perhaps their alliance would scarcely have endured, if in an
insensible manner Willy and his books had not gradually been made over
to Henrietta, whose great usefulness and good nature in this respect
quite made up, in grandmamma's eyes, for her very tolerable amount of
acquirements in Latin and Greek.

By the time care for her brother's health had ceased to be Henrietta'