was older than Floss had expected; a
good deal older than auntie, whom he sometimes spoke to as if she were
quite a little girl, in a way which amused the children very much. At
first he seemed very quiet and grave, but after a while Floss found out
that in his own way he was very fond of fun, and she confided to auntie
that she thought he was the funniest person she had ever seen. I don't
know if auntie told him this, or if he took it as a compliment, but
certainly he could not have been offended, for every day, as they
learnt to know him better, the children found him kinder and kinder.

So they were very happy at Greenmays, and no doubt would have gone on
being so but for one thing. There came bad news of their mother.

This was how they heard it. Every week at least, for several weeks,
Floss or Carrots, and sometimes both, got a letter from their mother or
from Cecil and Louise; and at first these letters were so cheerful, that
even the little bit of anxiety which the children had hardly known was
in their hearts melted away.

"What a _good_ thing mamma went to that nice warm place, isn't it,
auntie?" Carrots used to say after the arrival of each letter, and
auntie most heartily agreed with the happy little fellow. But at last,
just about Christmas-time, when the thin foreign-looking letter, that
the children had learnt to know so well, made its appearance one morning
on the breakfast-table, it proved to be for auntie--_that_, of course,
they did not object, to, had there been one for them too, but there was
not!

"Auntie dear, there is no letter for us," said Floss, when auntie came
into the room. "Will you please open yours quick, and see if there is
one inside it?"

"I don't think there is," said auntie; "it doesn't feel like it."

However, she opened the letter at once. No, there was no enclosure; and
Floss, who was watching her face, saw that it grew troubled as she ran
her eyes down the page.

"My letter is from your father. I cannot read it properly till after
breakfast, for uncle is waiting for me to pour out his coffee. Run off
now, dears, and I'll come to the nursery and tell you all about it after
breakfast," she said, trying to look and speak just the same as usual.

But Floss saw that she was _trying_; she did not persist, however, but
took Carrots by the hand, and went off obediently without speaking,
only giving auntie one wistful look as she turned away.

"What's wrong, Florence?" said Syb