Being desirous of employing, to the greatest
advantage, the time spent in his retirement within the bosom of his
family, he was concentrating his energies upon the mastication of the
toe of his slipper, upon which task he was bestowing the strictest and
most undivided attention, as he sat in the centre of the hearth-rug.

"He has got another tooth, Aunt Dolly," announced 'Toinette,
triumphantly, as soon as the greetings were over. "Show Aunt Dolly his
tooth." And, being laid upon his back on the maternal knee, in the most
uncomfortable and objectionable of positions, the tooth was exhibited,
as a matter calling forth public rejoicings.

Phemie knelt on the carpet before him, the humblest of his devotees.

"He is prettier than ever," she said. "Do you think he would come to me,
Mrs. Crewe?"

And, though the object of her admiration at once asserted his
prerogatives by openly rejecting her overtures with scorn, she rejoiced
over him as ecstatically as if he had shown himself the most amiable of
infant prodigies, which he most emphatically had not, probably having
been rendered irascible by the rash and inconsiderately displayed
interest in his dental developments. Whatever more exacting people might
have thought, Phemie was quite satisfied.

"I wish I was in your place, Dolly," she said, as she was going away.
"You seem so happy together here, somehow or other. Oh, dear! You don't
know how dreadful our house seems by contrast. If things _would_ break
or upset, or look a little untidy,--or if mamma's caps and dresses just
would n't look so solid and heavy--"

"Ah!" laughed Dolly, "you have n't seen our worst side, Phemie,--the
shabby side, which means worn shoes and old dresses and bills. We don't
get our whistle for nothing in Vagabondia, though, to be sure,"--and
I won't say a memory of the shabby coat-sleeve did not suggest the
amendment,--"I don't think we pay too dearly for it; and I believe there
is not one of us who would not rather pay for it than live without it."

And when she gave the girl her farewell kiss, it was a very warm one,
with a touch of pity in it. It was impossible for her to help feeling
sympathy for any one who was without the Griffith element in existence.

After this she went out herself to apply at the printer's, and was sent
from there to Brabazon Lodge, which was a suburban establishment, in a
chilly aristocratic quarter. An imposing edifice, Brabazon Lodge, built
of stone, and most un