e.'

In three days' time Percy returned; Theodora went with Arthur and Violet
to meet him at the station.

'Well!' said he, as they drove off, 'he is a very fine fellow, after
all! I don't know what is to be done for him! I wish we could find a
Theodora for him.'

'I told you so, Theodora!' cried Arthur. 'He has presented you.'

'There were two words to that bargain!' said Percy. 'He must be content
to wait for Helen.'

'So instead of my sister, you dispose of my daughter,' said Arthur.

'Poor little Helen!' said Violet. 'Imagine the age he will be when she
is eighteen!'

'He will never grow old!' said Percy. 'He has the poet's gift of
perpetual youth, the spring of life and fancy that keeps men young. He
has not grown a day older since this time five years. I found he had
taken a great deal of trouble about me, recommended me strenuously,
brought forward my papers on foreign policy, and been at much pains
to confute that report that was afloat against me. He treated my
appointment as a personal favour; and he is a man of weight now. You
were right, Theodora; it would have been abominable to sulk in
our corner, because we had behaved ill ourselves, and to meet such
noble-spirited kindness as an offence.'

'I am very glad that you feel it so,' returned Theodora.

'Now that I have seen him I do so completely. And another thing I
have to thank you for, Violet, that you saved me from laying it on any
thicker in that criticism of his poetry.'

'I told you how he said that you had done him a great deal of good.'

'A signal instance--almost a single instance of candour. But there is
a nobility of mind in him above small resentments and jealousies. Ay!
there never will be anybody fit for him but Helen!'

'And Helen brought up to be much better than her aunt,' said Theodora.

'It won't be my mother's fault if she is,' said Arthur. 'I was
determined yesterday to see what she would succeed in making her do, and
I declare the sprite drove her about like a slave--"Grandmamma, fetch me
this," "grandmamma, you must do that," till at last she brought my poor
mother down on her knees, stooping under the table to personate an old
cow in the stall.'

'Oh! Arthur! Arthur, how could you?' exclaimed Violet. 'What were you
about to let it go on?'

'Lying on the sofa, setting a good example,' said Percy.

'No, no, I did not go that length,' said Arthur. 'I was incog. in
the next room; but it was too good to interrupt. Besid