n't know," added he, with a laugh,
"whether hockey and football are part of a polite female education; but
if they be, the pupils that have got Dolly Stewart for their governess
are in rare luck."

"But why must there be all this hurry?"

"Because it's a whim of mine, dear little mother. Because--but don't ask
me for reasons, after having spoiled me for twenty years, and given me
my own way in everything. I 've got it into my wise head--and you know
what a wise head it is--that I 'm going to do something very brilliant.
You 'll puzzle me awfully if you ask me where or how; so just be
generous and don't push me to the wall."

"At all events, you 'll not go without seeing the doctor?"

"That I will. I have some experience of him as a questioner in the
Scripture-school of a Saturday, and I 'll not stand a cross-examination
in profane matters from so skilled a hand. Tell him from me that I had
one of my flighty fits on me, and that I knew I 'd make such a sorry
defence if we were to meet, that, in the words of his own song, 'I ran
awa' in the morning.'"

She shook her head in silence, and seemed far from satisfied.

"Tell him, however, that I 'll go and see Dolly the first day I'm free,
and bring him back a full account of her, how she looks, and what she
says of herself."

The thought of his return flashed across the poor mother's heart like
sunshine over a landscape, spreading light and gladness everywhere. "And
when will that be, Tony?" cried she, looking up into his eyes.

"Let me see. To-morrow will be Wednesday."

"No, Tony,--Thursday."

"To be sure, Thursday,--Thursday, the ninth; Friday, Liverpool;
Saturday, London! Sunday will do for a visit to Dolly; I suppose there
will be no impropriety in calling on her of a Sunday?"

"The M'Graders are a Scotch family, I don't know if they 'd like it."

"That shall be thought of. Let me see; Monday for the great man, Tuesday
and Wednesday to see a little bit of London, and back here by the end of
the week."

"Oh! if I thought that, Tony--"

"Well, do think it; believe it, rely upon it. If you like, I'll give up
the Tuesday and Wednesday, though I have some very gorgeous speculations
about Westminster Abbey and the Tower, and the monkeys in the Zoological
Gardens, with the pantomime for a finish in the evening. But you 've
only to say the word, and I 'll start half an hour after I see the Don
in Downing Street."

"No, of course not, darling. I 'm not so selfi