and I dare say Aubrey will be the happier for it--boys
always are.'

'If you don't like it, I wish you would let me speak to papa.'

'Richard, have you these five years been the safety-valve for my
murmurs without knowing what they amount to?'

'I thought no one complained unless to get a thing remedied.'

'Exactly so. That is man! And experience never shows man that woman's
growls relieve her soul, and that she dreads nothing more than their
being acted on! All I wish is, that this scheme may die a natural
death; but I should be miserable, and deserved to be so, if I raised a
finger to hinder it. What, must you go? Rule Daisy's lines if she
writes to Meta, please.'

'I did so. I have been trying to make her write straighter.'

'Of course you have. I expect I shall find her organ of order grown to
a huge bump when she comes home. Oh! when will our poor remnants be
once more a united family? and when shall I get into Cocksmoor school
again?'

When Dr. May came home, his plan was in full bloom. Henry had
gratefully accepted it, and answered for his brother being able to
travel by the next Monday; and Dr. May wanted Ethel to walk with him to
Bankside, and propose it there--talking it over with the sister, and
making it her own invitation. Ethel saw her fate, and complied, her
father talking eagerly all the way.

'You see, Ethel, it is quite as much for his spirits as his health that
I wish it. He is just the age that our Norman was.'

That was the key to a great deal. Ethel knew that her father had never
admitted any of the many excuses for the neglect of Norman's suffering
for the three months after his mother's death; but though it thrilled
her all over, she was not prepared to believe that any one, far less
any Ward, could be of the same sensitive materials as Norman. To avoid
answering, she went more than half-way, by saying, 'Don't you think I
might ask those poor girls to come with him?'

'By no manner of means,' said the Doctor, stopping short. 'It is just
what I want, to get him away from his sister. She minds nothing else;
and if it were not for Mary, I don't know what the little ones would
do; and as to Henry, he is very good and patient; but it is the way to
prevent him from forming domestic tastes to have no mistress to his
house. He will get into mischief, or marry, if she does not mind what
she is about.'

'That must come to an end when Leonard is well, and goes back to
school.'