o
the servant who entered, "Tell Nurse to bring in the Baby."

Mr. CHILLINGLY GORDON.--"I don't see the necessity for that, Sir Peter.
We may take the existence of the Baby for granted."

Mr. MIVERS.--"It is an advantage to the reputation of Sir Peter's work
to preserve the incognito. _Omne ignotum pro magnifico_."

THE REV. JOHN STALWORTH CHILLINGLY.--"I don't approve the cynical
levity of such remarks. Of course we must all be anxious to see, in the
earliest stage of being, the future representative of our name and race.
Who would not wish to contemplate the source, however small, of the
Tigris or the Nile!--"

MISS SALLY (tittering).--"He! he!"

MISS MARGARET.--"For shame, you giddy thing!"

The Baby enters in the nurse's arms. All rise and gather round the Baby
with one exception,--Mr. Gordon, who has ceased to be heir-at-law.

The Baby returned the gaze of its relations with the most contemptuous
indifference. Miss Sibyl was the first to pronounce an opinion on the
Baby's attributes. Said she, in a solemn whisper, "What a heavenly
mournful expression! it seems so grieved to have left the angels!"

THE REV. JOHN.--"That is prettily said, Cousin Sibyl; but the infant
must pluck up its courage and fight its way among mortals with a good
heart, if it wants to get back to the angels again. And I think it will;
a fine child." He took it from the nurse, and moving it deliberately up
and down, as if to weigh it, said cheerfully, "Monstrous heavy! by the
time it is twenty it will be a match for a prize-fighter of fifteen
stone!"

Therewith he strode to Gordon, who as if to show that he now considered
himself wholly apart from all interest in the affairs of a family who
had so ill-treated him in the birth of that Baby, had taken up the
"Times" newspaper and concealed his countenance beneath the ample sheet.
The Parson abruptly snatched away the "Times" with one hand, and,
with the other substituting to the indignant eyes of the _ci-devant_
heir-at-law the spectacle of the Baby, said, "Kiss it."

"Kiss it!" echoed Chillingly Gordon, pushing back his chair--"kiss
it! pooh, sir, stand off! I never kissed my own baby: I shall not kiss
another man's. Take the thing away, sir: it is ugly; it has black eyes."

Sir Peter, who was near-sighted, put on his spectacles and examined
the face of the new-born. "True," said he, "it has black eyes,--very
extraordinary: portentous: the first Chillingly that ever had black
eyes."