rtakes, most properly, to make them a
home--whether in this house or not is another thing; he and Averil will
look after them; and he made a most right answer when Mr. Axworthy
offered to take Leonard into his office,' proceeded the communicative
Doctor, unable to help pouring himself out, in spite of time and place,
as soon as he had a daughter to himself. 'Settle nothing
now--education not finished; but privately he tells me he believes his
mother would as soon have sent Leonard to the hulks as to that old
rascal, and the scamp, his grand-nephew.'

Mary's answer to this, as his tones became incautiously emphatic, was a
glance round all the attic doors, lest they should have ears.

'Now then, do you want to get home?' said the Doctor, a little rebuked.

'Oh no, not if there is anything I can do.'

'I want to get this girl away from Leonard. He is just come to the
state when it all turns on getting him off to sleep quietly, and not
disturbing him, and she is too excited and restless to do anything with
her; she has startled him twice already, and then gets upset--tired
out, poor thing! and will end in being hysterical if she does not get
fed and rested, and then we shall be done for! Now I want you to take
charge of her. See, here's her room, and I have ordered up some tea
for her. You must get her quieted down, make her have a tolerable
meal, and when she has worked off her excitement, put her to
bed--undressed, mind--and you might lie down by her. If you can't
manage her, call me. That's Leonard's door, and I shall be there all
night; but don't if you can help it. Can you do this, or must I get
Miss "What-d'ye-call-her" the elder one, if she can leave the Greens in
Randall's Alley?

Well was it that Mary's heart was stout as well as tender; and instead
of mentally magnifying the task, and diminishing her own capabilities,
she simply felt that she had received a command, and merely asked that
Ethel should be informed.

'I am going to send up to her.'

'And shall I give Averil anything to take?'

'Mutton-chops, if you can.'

'I meant sal-volatile, or anything to put her to sleep.'

'Nonsense! I hate healthy girls drugging themselves. You don't do
that at home, Mary!'

Mary showed her white teeth in a silent laugh at the improbability,
there being nothing Ethel more detested than what she rather rudely
called nervous quackeries. Her father gave her a kiss of grateful
approbation, and was gone.