ey like. I wanted so much to have you
home for it, but papa says it would only unsettle you and take you
away from your work.

"Had Dulcie forgotten you? I should like to see her so much. Now I
really must leave off, as I am going to the Aquarium with papa.
Mind you write me as good a letter as this is, if that old Doctor
lets you. Minnie and Roly send love and kisses, and papa sends his
kind regards, and I am to say he hopes you are settling down
steadily to work.

"With best love, your affectionate sister,
"BARBARA BULTITUDE."

"P.S.--I nearly forgot to say that Uncle Duke came the other day
and has stayed here ever since. He is going to make papa's fortune!
I believe by a gold mine he knows about somewhere, and a steam
tramway in Lapland. But I don't like him very much--he is so
polite."

It would be nothing short of an insult to the reader's comprehension, if
I were to enter into an elaborate explanation of the effect this letter
had upon Mr. Bultitude. He took it in by degrees, trying to steady his
nerves at each additional item of poor Barbara's well-meant intelligence
by a sip at his tin-flavoured coffee. But when he came to the
postscript, in spite of its purport being mercifully broken to him
gradually by the extreme difficulty of making it out from two
undercurrents of manuscript, he choked convulsively and spilt his
coffee.

Dr. Grimstone visited this breach of etiquette with stern promptness.
"This conduct at table is disgraceful, sir--perfectly
disgraceful--unworthy of a civilised being. I have been a teacher of
youth for many years, and never till now did I have the pain of seeing a
pupil of mine choke in his breakfast-cup with such deplorable
ill-breeding. It's pure greediness, sir, and you will have the goodness
to curb your indecent haste in consuming your food for the future. Your
excellent father has frequently complained to me, with tears in his
eyes, of the impossibility of teaching you to behave at meals with
common propriety!"

There was a faint chuckle along the tables, and several drank coffee
with studied elegance and self-repression either as a valuable example
to Dick, or as a personal advertisement. But Paul was in no mood for
reproof and instruction. He stood up in his excitement, flourishing his
letter wildly.

"Dr. Grimstone!" he said; "n