sn't feel much like it at present: I'm fairly bursting with
spirits," smiled Mr. Walkingshaw, and then recollected himself and grew
grave again. "What's to be done supposing people do notice?" he asked.

"We'll just have to stretch a point," said Andrew somberly, "and give
some other explanation."

"We might give some decent, respectable doctor the credit for it," his
father suggested.

"They'd all be afraid to take it, if it went on any further. Imagine a
respectable doctor admitting he'd made a man grow younger! I dare say
they might be proud of such a performance in London, but they've more
decency here!"

It seemed characteristic of Mr. Walkingshaw's calamity that he should
bounce up like a tennis ball after each well-meant effort to depress
him.

"In that case," said he cheerfully, "we'll just have to say I am trying
to make myself more of a companion for you."

Andrew started violently.

"We'll say no such thing! Do you suppose _I'm_ going to have my name
mixed up with it?"

His father remained serene.

"Well then, what do you suggest?"

Andrew's cheeks drooped, carrying the corners of his mouth down with
them.

"There's no good in suggesting. You can trust your friends to do that
for you. Pretty stories they'll be circulating!"

Mr. Walkingshaw regarded him with dignity, mingled with a trace of
good-natured contempt for such a lack of spirit.

"My dear Andrew," said he, "you need not be under the slightest
apprehension. Whatever my external appearance may become--and I trust it
will remain not altogether unpleasing--I shall see to it that my conduct
rebuts any breath of scandal. I shall be, if possible, more circumspect,
more scrupulously observant of the rules which should regulate the
behavior of a man in my position, more discreet both in speech and
conduct. The tongues of the libelous will be effectually silenced
_then_."

Mr. Walkingshaw accompanied these excellent sentiments by gently
swinging himself to and fro in his revolving chair and rolling a scrap
of blotting-paper into a pellet, which, at the conclusion of his speech,
he absent-mindedly discharged at the office clock. His son seemed as
impressed by these movements as by his words.

"You'll find it easier," he began bitterly, "to set people talking than
to--"

"When you come to think of it, the situation is not without decided
advantages," his father interrupted, springing up and pacing the room
with an animated air. "Just thin