oman receiving me for her sister's sake, and willing to befriend
me for my own! True, I am strong, and able, I think, to make my way in
the world unaided. It is not such help as would ease my necessary
struggle that I ask, but the sympathy which only blood-relationship can
bring. So I build great hopes on my success in the search; and I have
chosen this evening as a fit time for the happy recognition. I cannot
doubt that we shall keep our Christmas together. Do you know of any one,
Mr. Le Clear, living in this court, who might prove to be my aunt?"

"Upon my soul," said that gentleman, who had been sucking the juice of
Nicholas's narrative, and had now reached the skin, "you have come to
the last person likely to be able to tell you. It was only to-day that I
learned by a correspondence with Doctor Chocker, whom all the world
knows, that he was living just next door to me. Who lives on the other
side I can't tell. Mrs. Crimp lives here; but she receipts her bills,
Temperance A. Crimp; so there's no chance for a Eunice there. As for the
other three houses, I know nothing, except just this: and here I come to
my story, which is very short, and nothing like so entertaining as
yours. Yesterday I was called upon by a jiggoty little woman,--I say
jiggoty, because that expresses exactly my meaning,--a jiggoty little
woman, who announced herself as Miss Pix, living in Number Five, and who
brought an invitation in person to me to come to a small party at her
house this Christmas-eve; and as she was jiggoty, I thought I would
amuse myself by going. But she is _Miss_ Pix; and your aunt, according
to your showing, should be _Mrs._"

"That must be where the old gentleman, Doctor Chocker, is going," said
Nicholas, who had forgotten to mention that part of the Doctor's
remarks, and now did so.

"Really, that is entertaining!" cried Paul. "I certainly shall go, if
it's for nothing else than to see Miss Pix and Doctor Chocker together."

"Pardon my ignorance, Mr. Le Clear," said Nicholas, with a smile; "but
what do you mean by jiggoty?"

"I mean," said Paul, "to express a certain effervescence of manner, as
if one were corked against one's will, ending in a sudden pop of the
cork and a general overflowing. I invented the word after seeing Miss
Pix. She is an odd person; but I shouldn't wish to be so concerned about
my neighbors as she appears to be. My philosophy of life," he continued,
standing now before the fire, and receiving it