of a towhead you are!"

"Towhead?" said Robert, bewildered-like.

"Shelley said you were a little bit of a man, with watery blue eyes,
and whiter hair than mine."

"Oh I say!" cried Robert. "She must have been stringin' you!"

Leon just whooped; because while Mr. Paget didn't talk like the 'orse,
'ouse people, he made you think of them in the way he said things, and
the sound of his voice. Then we had dinner, and I don't remember that
we ever had quite such a feast before. Mother had put on every single
flourish she knew. She used her very best dishes, and linen, and no
cook anywhere could beat Candace alone; now she had Mrs. Freshett to
help her, and mother also. If she tried to show Mr. Paget, she did it!
No visitor was there except him, but we must have been at the table two
hours talking, and eating from one dish after another. Candace LIKED
to wear her white dress, and carry things around, and they certainly
were good.

And talk! Father, Laddie, and Robert talked over all creation. Every
once in a while when mother saw an opening, she put in her paddle, and
no one could be quicker, when she watched sharp and was trying to make
a good impression. Shelley was very quiet; she scarcely spoke or
touched that delicious food. Once the Paget man turned to her, looking
at her so fondlike, as he picked up one of her sauce dishes and her
spoon and wanted to feed her. And he said: "Heah child, eat your
dinnah! You have nawthing to be fussed ovah! I mean to propose to
you, and your parents befowr night. That is what I am heah for."

Every one laughed so, Shelley never got the bite; but after that she
perked up more and ate a little by herself.

At last father couldn't stand it any longer, so he began asking Robert
about his trip to England, and the case he had won. When the table was
cleared for dessert, Mr. Paget asked mother to have Candace to bring
his satchel. He opened it and spread papers all over, so that father
and Laddie could see the evidence, while he told them how it was.

It seemed there was a law in England, all of us knew about it, because
father often had explained it. This law said that a man who had lots
of money and land must leave almost all of it to his eldest son; and
the younger ones must go into law, the army, be clergymen, or enter
trade and earn a living, while the eldest kept up the home place. Then
he left it to his eldest son, and his other boys had to work for a
living.