o the rescue; for, as before, the rest of the family
were gathered in the next room, and heard all that had passed. The two
gentlemen had allowed the captain to ramble on, partly because he
amused them and us, partly because they knew it was of little use to
try to stop him after he had once started to expound his views on men
and things.

"Captain," said mamma, joining the two in the library, "Mrs. Rutherford
and I thought you were growing weary of the city, and wanted to go back
home; so we have arranged a little plan which may suit you both, and
will certainly suit me well. I have a great deal of sewing to be done
now, which I should like to have done in the house, and Mrs. Yorke is
such a beautiful seamstress that I should be glad of her assistance.
Suppose that she comes here. I can give her accommodation on the
basement floor, so that she need not go up and down stairs; and Mammy
and my own seamstress will gladly do all that is needful for her. Then
you can go home as soon as you choose. Will you ask her?"

The captain gazed for a minute into mother's face, then looked from her
to father, from him to uncle Rutherford, and drew a long breath.

"Wa'l!" he ejaculated, "when you folks gets histed to heaven, I reckon
there ain't goin' to be no hitch in the histin'. An' them's my
opinions."

Having delivered himself of these "opinions," he rose, shook hands with
mother, father, and uncle Rutherford, a long hard shake, expressive of
his feelings; came into the room where the rest of us were gathered,
and went through the same ceremony all round; returned to the library
and repeated it, then once more back to the drawing-room for a second
pumping of each arm, and finally managed to convey himself away; the
last words which father heard as he closed the door behind him being,
"No hitch in _that_ histin'."

Two days after, Mrs. Yorke was comfortably settled in our basement, and
industriously plying her needle; the captain was on his way home by
water, where he would not be apt to go astray; while at a very few
hours' notice Theodore had been removed from the one school, and sent
to the other.

"Miss Milly," said Jim, meeting my sister in the hall on the afternoon
of the day on which he had learned that his rival had been taken from
the school they had both attended, and speaking in evident but
repressed excitement, "Miss Milly, they say Theodore Yorke has left
school for good. Has he, Miss Milly?"

"He has left you