ionaires."

"Were you all named from Cromwell's Ironsides?" inquired Rose, lightly,
inclined to laugh and colour at the absurd recollection that, though she
had seemed to know all about him from the moment he spoke of St. Ebbe's
and Annie, she had been ignorant of his very name till he put down his
card. If he had not done so, she would have had to describe him to Annie
as the big, fair-haired young doctor with the Roman nose, or by some
other nonsensical item, such as the signet-ring on his left hand, or the
trick of putting his hand to his chin.

"I am sure I cannot tell"--he met her question with an answering
laugh--"except that, so far as I know, we have had more to do with
cotton than with cannon-balls. My father was a Manchester man, like my
uncles. I have struck out a new line in handling--not to say a sword,
but a lancet."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Jennings with mild superiority, "all my sons are in the
services--I have given them to their Queen and country. Two of my
sons-in-law are also in the army, and I often say of the third--a
clergyman in a sadly heathen part of the Black Country--that, engaged as
he is in the Church militant, he is as much a fighter as the rest of
them." Having thus in the mildest, most ladylike manner, established her
social supremacy, Mrs. Jennings was doubly gracious to the visitor.
They made such progress in their acquaintance by means of the Manchester
Ironsides and other members of her very large circle of friends, with
regard to whom the two discovered the names at least of several were
also known to Harry Ironside, that the lady made another marked
concession. When he said he was in rooms in London, and had his only
sister with him, she signified with a kind and graceful bend of the
lace-enfolded shoulders and the bewigged head within the wonderful
edifice of a cap, that she meant to have the pleasure of calling on Miss
Ironside.

Rose could hardly believe her ears; and she did not wonder, though she
was glad that he had the sense and good feeling to thank Mrs. Jennings
with warmth, since Rose knew what a testimony it was to the genuine
liking which the mistress of the house had taken to her chance guest.
For Mrs. Jennings went very little out, and was exceedingly particular
in adding to her visiting-list, as became the head of a select
boarding-house, and the mother of so many officers and gentlemen, not to
say gentlewomen.

But matters did not end even there. He managed to convey