rrow!" he said.

The noise outside subsided a little as Mrs. Jessop appeared upon the
scene, but the next moment it broke out again, growing louder as the
staircase was mounted. Evidently Mrs. Jessop intended to put the rebels
to bed--a resolution which did not apparently please them, for Doctor
Brudenell distinctly heard his elder nephew threaten to punch the head
of that worthy woman, while his brother and sister appeared to be
trying to dance upon her toes. Then came a cessation of the hubbub,
sudden and soothing, and the Doctor finished his dinner in peace.

Crossing the hall toward his study a little later, with the intention
of getting a book to add to the enjoyment of a very fine-flavored
cigar, he encountered Mrs. Jessop, somewhat flushed and tumbled, coming
down-stairs, and stopped to speak to her.

"Well, Mrs. Jessop, got rid of your charges for to-night--eh?" he said,
good-humoredly.

"That I haven't, sir, for to go to bed they wouldn't! I've seen a good
many children, but never did I see children so set upon their own way
as them children!" declared Mrs. Jessop, emphatically.

The Doctor felt that this was correct; his opinion being that any
children in the least degree resembling Laura's luckily did not exist
anywhere.

"Oh, spoilt, Mrs. Jessop," he remarked, judicially--"spoilt--that's it!
They'll be better, you'll find, when we get a good strict governess for
them; and that reminds me, I must certainly advertise for one
to-morrow. I don't know how it is that it has slipped my memory for so
long. So they're not in bed, the young rogues--eh?"

"No, sir--they're with Miss Boucheafen."

"With her? You should not have allowed it--you should not have let them
go in?" said the Doctor, quickly and peremptorily.

"I couldn't help it, sir," returned the housekeeper, stolidly. "They
started making such a racket of stamping and screaming outside her door
that she heard and opened it to ask what was the matter. Of course,
they were for rushing in before I could keep them back, and so she
said, Let them stay awhile, and she would keep them still; and so there
they are, and she telling them some fairy-tale nonsense."

"Well, well!" exclaimed the Doctor; and then added, "How does Miss
Boucheafen seem to-day?"

"Better, I think, sir--she seems so. She asked me to say that if you
were at liberty she would be glad if you could spare her a few minutes."

"Tell her I will come up presently," said Doctor Brudenel