ng of her to
rudeness and struggling!'

'Very well,' said Louis, as James concluded the brief sentences,
uttered in the bitterness of his heart, 'one bargain I make. If I am
to hold my tongue about school, I will have my own way with her in the
holidays.'

'I tell you, Louis, that it is time to have done with childishness.
Clara is growing up--I _won't_ have you encourage her in all that wild
flightiness--I didn't want to have had her here at all! If she is ever
to be a reasonable, conformable woman, it is high time to begin. I
can't have you undoing the work of six months! when Mary might make
some hand of her, too--'

James stopped. Louis's eyes were shut, and he appeared to be
completely asleep. If silence were acquiescence, it was at least
gained; and so he went away, and on returning, intended to impress his
lessons of reserve on Clara and her grandmother, but was prevented by
finding Mrs. Ponsonby and her daughter already in the library,
consulting over some letters, while Clara sat at her grandmother's knee
in the full felicity of hearing all the Northwold news.

The tea was brought in, and there was an inquiry for Louis. He came
slowly forward from the sofa at the dark end of the room, but
disclaimed, of course, the accusation of fatigue.

'A very bad sign,' said James, 'that you have been there all this time
without our finding it out. Decidedly, you have taken me in. You don't
look half as well as you promised. You are not the same colour ten
minutes together, just now white, and now--how you redden!'

'Don't, Jem!' cried Louis, as each observation renewed the tide of
burning crimson in his cheek. 'It is like whistling to a turkey-cock.
If I had but the blue variety, it might be more comfortable, as well as
more interesting.'

Clara went into a choking paroxysm of laughter, which her brother tried
to moderate by a look, and Louis rendered more convulsive by quoting

'Marked you his cheek of heavenly blue,'

and looked with a mischievous amusement at James's ill-suppressed
displeasure at the merriment that knew no bounds, till even Mrs. Frost,
who had laughed at first as much at James's distress as at Louis's
travestie or Clara's fun, thought it time to check it by saying, 'You
are right, Jem, he is not half so strong as he thinks himself. You
must keep him in good order.'

'Take care, Aunt Kitty,' said Louis; 'you'll make me restive. A tutor
and governess both! I appeal! Shall we