she never had so attentive a pupil, and it was in
talking with him--for 'conversation' was a very important part of her
teaching--that she got to know so much of Gerard, and he so much of her.

She used to tell him stories of her own boys, Paul--Paul was papa--and
Guy, in French, and he had to answer questions about the stories to show
that he had understood her. And in these stories the name of Cosmo
Vandeleur came to be mentioned.

The first time or so he heard it I don't think Jerry noticed it. But one
day it struck him just as it had struck grandmamma that first day--the
birthday-tea day--at Moor Court.

'Vandeleur,' said Jerry--it was one day when he had come over for his
lesson, and as it was raining and I could not go out, I was sitting in
the window making a cloak or something for my doll. 'Vandeleur,' he
repeated. 'I wonder, Mrs. Wingfield, if your nephew is any relation to
some boys at my school. They are great chums of mine--they were to have
come home with me for the summer holidays'--it was the Christmas
holidays now,--'but their relations had settled something else for them
and wouldn't let them come. I think their relations must be rather
horrid.'

'I remember Sharley--I think it was Sharley--speaking of them,' said
grandmamma. 'They are orphans, are they not?'

'Yes,' said Gerard. 'They've got guardians--one of them is quite an old
woman. Her name is Lady Bridget Woodstone. They don't care very much for
her. I think she must be very crabbed.'

'I do not think they can be related to my nephew,' said grandmamma. 'I
never heard of any orphan boys in his family, and I never heard of Lady
Bridget Woodstone. But Mr. Cosmo Vandeleur is only my nephew, because
his mother was my husband's sister--so of course he _may_ have relations
I know nothing of. He always seemed to me very near when he was a boy,
because he was so often with us.'

She sighed a little as she finished speaking. Thinking of Mr. Vandeleur
made her sad. It did seem so strange that he had never written all these
years.

And Jerry was very quick as well as thoughtful. He saw that for some
reason the mention of the name made her sad, so he said no more about
the Vandeleur boys. Long afterwards he told us that when he went back to
school he did ask Harry and Lindsay Vandeleur if they had any relation
called Mr. Cosmo Vandeleur, but at that time they told him they did not
know. They were quite under the care of old Lady Bridget, and she was