e he had left the two girls in
waiting beside the dwarf's sick-bed, he now discovered that they had
gone, and that old Andy had replaced them, a change which, to judge from
Hansel's excited looks and wild utterance, was not by any means to his
taste.

"Was machst du hier?" cried he, sternly, to the old man.

"Whisht! alannah! Take a sleep, acushla!" whined old Andy, as, under
the delusion that it was beside an infant his watch was established, he
tried to rock the settle-bed like a cradle, and then croned away in a
cracked voice one of his own native ditties:

"I saw a man weeping and makin' sad moan,
He was crying and grievin',
For he knew their deceiving
An' rockin' a cradle for a child not his own."

"Was fur katzen jammer! What for cats' music mak'st thou there?"

"Where 's the girls, Andy?" whispered Daltou in the old man's ear.

"They 're gone," muttered he.

"Gone where? where did they go?"

"Fort mit ihm. Away with him. Leave him not stay. Mein head is heavy,
and mein brain turn round!" screamed Hansel.

"Will ye tell me where they 're gone, I say?" cried Daiton, angrily.

"Hushoo! husho!" sang out the old man, as he fancied he was composing
his charge to sleep; and then made signs to Dalton to be still and not
awaken him.

With an angry muttering Dalton turned away and left the chamber, totally
regardless of Hanserl's entreaties to take Andy along with him.

"You're just good company for each other!" said he, sulkily, to himself.
"But where 's these girls, I wonder?"

"Oh, papa, I have found you at last!" cried Kate, as, bounding down the
stairs half a dozen steps at a time, she threw her arm round him. "She's
here! she's upstairs with us; and so delightful, and so kind, and so
beautiful. I never believed any one could be so charming."

"And who is she, when she's at home?" said Dalton, half sulkily.

"Lady Hester, of course, papa. She came while we were sitting with
Hanserl, came quite alone to see him and us; and when she had talked
to him for a while, so kindly and so sweetly, about his wound, and his
fever, and his home in the Tyrol, and his mother, and everything, she
turned to Nelly and said, 'Now, my dears, for a little conversation with
yourselves. Where shall we go to be quite alone and uninterrupted?' We
did n't know what to say, papa; for we knew that you and the strange
gentleman were busy in the sitting-room, and while I was thinking what
excuse to make, Nelly