' said his
sister, in a slightly scandalised tone.

'That would be coals to Newcastle with a vengeance,' he chuckled; 'but
you mustn't mind my going on--that's my way; if people don't like it I
can't help it, but I always speak right out.'

'Which is the reason we love him,' came in a stage aside from
Cuthbert, who took advantage of a slight deafness in one of his
uncle's ears.

'Well, Mr. Schoolmaster,' said the latter, working round to Mark
again, 'and how are _you_ gettin' on? If you'd worked harder at
College and done me credit, you'd 'a' been a feller of your college,
or a judge in an Indian court, by this time, instead of birching
naughty little boys.'

'It's a detail,' said Mark; 'but I don't interfere in that
department.'

'Well, you _are_ young to be trusted with a birch. I'm glad they look
at things that way. If _you're_ satisfied with yourself, I suppose I
ought to be, though I did look forward once to seeing a nephew of mine
famous. You've '_ad_ all your fame at Cambridge, with your papers, and
your poems, and your College skits--a nice snug little fame all to
yourself.'

Martha tittered acidly at this light badinage, but it brought a pained
look into Trixie's large brown eyes, who thought it was a shame that
poor Mark should never be allowed to hear the last of his Cambridge
_fiasco_.

Even Mrs. Ashburn seemed anxious to shield Mark. 'Ah, Solomon,' she
said, 'Mark sees his folly now; he knows how wrong he was to spend his
time in idle scribbling to amuse thoughtless young men, when he ought
to have studied hard and shown his gratitude to you for all you have
done for him.'

'Well, I've been a good friend to him, Jane, and I could have been a
better if he'd proved deserving. I'm not one to grudge any expense.
And if I thought, even now, that he'd really given up his
scribbling----'

Mark thought it prudent to equivocate: 'Even if I wished to write,
uncle,' he said, 'what with my school-work, and what with reading for
the Bar, I should not have much time for it; but mother is right, I
_do_ see my folly now.'

This pleased Uncle Solomon, who still clung to the fragments of his
belief in Mark's ability, and had been gratified upon his joining one
of the Inns of Court by the prospect of having a nephew who at least
would have the title of barrister; he relaxed at once: 'Well, well,
let bygones be bygones, you may be a credit to me yet. And now I think
of it, come down and stay Sunday at "The Wood