rhaps, because he is so shy, but as
soon as you begin to know him. I mean to ask him to come down as soon
as he can get a holiday. His captain told me, when he served in the
Diomede, that there was not a man in the ship to come near him for
nimbleness and quiet fearlessness."

"Then what made him take to his books again? Oh, how terribly dull he
must find them! Why, that must be Stonnington church, on the hill!"

"Yes, and the old grammar school close by. I was very near going there
once myself, but they sent me to Winchester instead. It was partly
through me that he got his berth here, though not much to thank me for,
I am afraid. Sixty pounds a year and his rations isn't much for a man
who has been at Cambridge. But even that he could not get in the navy
when the slack time came last year. He held no commission, like many
other fine young fellows, but had entered as a first-class volunteer.
And so he had no rating when this vile peace was patched up--excuse me,
my dear, what I meant to say was, when the blessings of tranquillity
were restored. And before that his father, my dear old friend, died very
suddenly, as you have heard me say, without leaving more than would bury
him. Don't talk any more of it. It makes me sad to think of it."

"But," persisted Dolly, "I could never understand why a famous man like
Sir Edmond Scudamore--a physician in large practice, and head doctor to
the King, as you have often told us--could possibly have died in that
sort of way, without leaving any money, or at least a quantity of
valuable furniture and jewels. And he had not a number of children,
papa, to spend all his money, as I do yours, whenever I get the chance;
though you are growing so dreadfully stingy now that I never can look
even decent."

"My dear, it is a very long sad story. Not about my stinginess, I
mean--though that is a sad story, in another sense, but will not move my
compassion. As to Sir Edmond, I can only tell you now that, while he was
a man of great scientific knowledge, he knew very little indeed of money
matters, and was not only far too generous, but what is a thousand
times worse, too trustful. Being of an honorable race himself, and an
honorable sample of it, he supposed that a man of good family must be
a gentleman; which is not always the case. He advanced large sums of
money, and signed bonds for a gentleman, or rather a man of that rank,
whose name does not concern you; and by that man he was vilely b