urse provided by Miss Coppinger. The bond of a
common faith was one that, at this stage of his development, had but
little appeal to Larry, but he was, at all events, spared any
possibility of suffering from the feelings of sub-friction, if not of
antagonism, that inevitably stirred in his aunt's breast, if she found
herself brought into relation closer than that of employer and
employed with those of the older creed.

His sense of beauty, now beginning to acquire consciousness, and
sorely afflicted by the decorative scheme that had been adopted in
Barty's bedroom, found solace in the faces of these two women. Even
the lazy consideration of the contrast between their types, was a
comfort to Larry, and distracted his mind from the wall-paper (which
suggested the contents of Dr. Mangan's surgery, rhubarb, and
mustard-leaves predominating), and from Barty's taste in art, which in
its sacred and profane aspects was alike deplorable.

Nurse Brennan, slight and fair, with the clearest of blue eyes, and a
Dresden china complexion--Larry was already artist enough to study and
adore the shadow of her white coif, with its subtle, reflected lights,
on her pink, rose-leaf cheek--and Mrs. Mangan, just a little
over-blown, but heavily, darkly handsome, with deep-lidded shadowy
eyes, and--as Master Coppinger pleased himself by discovering--a
slight suggestion of a luxurious Chesterfield sofa, upholstered in
rich cream velvet. When he was getting better, and the rigours of the
sick room were relaxing, these two provided him with interest and
entertainment of which they were delightfully unaware.

"Well, and what will I give him for his dinner to-day,
Norrse?"--(impossible to persuade the English alphabet to disclose
Mrs. Mangan's pronunciation of this word)--his hostess would say,
drifting largely into Larry's room, and seating herself on the side of
his bed.

"Don't be making an invalid of him at all, Mrs. Mangan!" Nurse Brennan
would rejoin briskly; "I'm just telling him I'd be sorry to get a
thump from that old wrist of his, he and the Doctor think so much
about! And he hasn't as much as a point of temperature those three
days!"

"Oh, I say, Nurse!" Larry would protest, "then why won't you let me
get up?"

"Be quite now"--(in Ireland the "e" in "quiet" is not infrequently
thus transposed)--"and don't be bothering me, like a good child!"
Nurse would reply, with a sidelong flash of her charming eyes, a
recognition of Larry's