er cheek, to test its temperature, and
looking round with a smile, she observed:

'I know what some people would say, Kit--'

'Nonsense,' interposed Kit with a perfect apprehension of what was to
follow.

'No, but they would indeed. Some people would say that you'd fallen in
love with her, I know they would.'

To this, Kit only replied by bashfully bidding his mother 'get out,'
and forming sundry strange figures with his legs and arms, accompanied
by sympathetic contortions of his face. Not deriving from these means
the relief which he sought, he bit off an immense mouthful from the
bread and meat, and took a quick drink of the porter; by which
artificial aids he choked himself and effected a diversion of the
subject.

'Speaking seriously though, Kit,' said his mother, taking up the theme
afresh, after a time, 'for of course I was only in joke just now, it's
very good and thoughtful, and like you, to do this, and never let
anybody know it, though some day I hope she may come to know it, for
I'm sure she would be very grateful to you and feel it very much. It's
a cruel thing to keep the dear child shut up there. I don't wonder
that the old gentleman wants to keep it from you.'

'He don't think it's cruel, bless you,' said Kit, 'and don't mean it to
be so, or he wouldn't do it--I do consider, mother, that he wouldn't do
it for all the gold and silver in the world. No, no, that he wouldn't.
I know him better than that.'

'Then what does he do it for, and why does he keep it so close from
you?' said Mrs Nubbles.

'That I don't know,' returned her son. 'If he hadn't tried to keep it
so close though, I should never have found it out, for it was his
getting me away at night and sending me off so much earlier than he
used to, that first made me curious to know what was going on. Hark!
what's that?'

'It's only somebody outside.'

'It's somebody crossing over here,' said Kit, standing up to listen,
'and coming very fast too. He can't have gone out after I left, and
the house caught fire, mother!'

The boy stood, for a moment, really bereft, by the apprehension he had
conjured up, of the power to move. The footsteps drew nearer, the door
was opened with a hasty hand, and the child herself, pale and
breathless, and hastily wrapped in a few disordered garments, hurried
into the room.

'Miss Nelly! What is the matter!' cried mother and son together.

'I must not stay a moment,' she returned, 'grandfather