le--I dislike him.'

'Perhaps I am unjust to him; but I thought he treated us all with a sort of
bland pity that I found very offensive.'

'Yes; I thought that too. His manner seemed to say, "I am very sorry for
you, but what can be done?"'

'Is the other fellow--the wounded one--as bad?'

She pursed up her lip, slightly shrugged her shoulders, and then said,
'There's not a great deal to choose between them; but I think I like him
better.'

'How do you like Dick, eh?' said he, in a whisper.

'Oh, so much,' said she, with one of her half-downcast looks, but which
never prevented her seeing what passed in her neighbour's face.

'Well, don't let him fall in love with _you_,' said he, with a smile, 'for
it would be bad for you both.'

'But why should he?' said she, with an air of innocence.

'Just because I don't see how he is to escape it. What's Master Atlee
saying to you, Kitty?'

'He's giving me some hints about horse-breaking,' said she quietly.

'Is he, by George? Well, I 'd like to see him follow you over that fallen
timber in the back lawn. We'll have you out, Master Joe, and give you a
field-day to-morrow,' said the old man.

'I vote we do,' cried Dick; 'unless, better still, we could persuade Miss
Betty to bring the dogs over and give us a cub-hunt.'

'I want to see a cub-hunt,' broke in Nina.

'Do you mean that you ride to hounds, Cousin Nina?' asked Dick.

'I should think that any one who has taken the ox-fences on the Roman
Campagna, as I have, might venture to face your small stone-walls here.'

'That's plucky, anyhow; and I hope, Joe, it will put you on your metal to
show yourself worthy of your companionship. What is old Mathew looking so
mysteriously about? What do you want?'

The old servant thus addressed had gone about the room with the air of
one not fully decided to whom to speak, and at last he leaned over Miss
Kearney's shoulder, and whispered a few words in her ear. 'Of course not,
Mat!' said she, and then turning to her father--'Mat has such an opinion of
my medical skill, he wants me to see Mr. Walpole, who, it seems, has got
up, and evidently increased his pain by it.'

'Oh, but is there no doctor near us?' asked Nina eagerly.

'I'd go at once,' said Kate frankly, 'but my skill does not extend to
surgery.'

'I have some little knowledge in that way: I studied and walked the
hospitals for a couple of years,' broke out Joe. 'Shall I go up to him?'

'By all means,' cried sev