or leave withal,
In unexpected largesse?'

MRS. BROWNING.

Dr. Ross and his wife listened very kindly to their daughter's project.
Indeed, if Audrey had expressed a wish to establish a small colony of
street Arabs at the end of the Woodcote garden, Mrs. Ross would have
offered no objection to the scheme. Audrey could have ruled her mother
as well as ever Geraldine had ruled her; but she was too generous to
exert her influence. Her mother could have refused her nothing; from
morning to night her one thought was how she might console her child.

'Mollie will be such a companion for Audrey, John!' she suggested, when
for one moment her husband had hesitated.

'I was thinking about Matthew O'Brien,' he replied. 'Brail is rather too
near, and people will talk; it will leak out in time that O'Brien is
Mollie's father.'

'Will that matter?' interposed Michael; 'talk will not hurt anyone. I
think I can answer for O'Brien: he is the last man to lay claim to his
own child. His brother tells me that he is perfectly content if he sees
her from time to time. Kester often writes to him, and he is never tired
of reading his letters. Both Mollie and Kester have grown quite fond of
him.'

'I think it should be kept quiet, for Mollie's sake,' returned Dr. Ross.
'In my judgment, Matthew O'Brien is a very unfit person to take care of
a girl approaching womanhood. His brother is old, and he may outlive
him. I do not wish to be hard on him, but he seems to me a very
irresponsible sort of person. When Mollie is of age she will, of course,
judge for herself; but until then her friends will be wise not to give
her up to her father's guardianship.'

'He will never claim her,' replied Michael dryly. 'I will quote your own
words: an irresponsible person is only too glad to evade responsibility.
Mollie may live at Woodcote quite safely, and her visits to Brail will
be taken as a matter of course. Of all people I know, the O'Briens are
the least likely to chatter about their private concerns. Matthew
O'Brien will be too thankful that his daughter should enjoy such
privileges to wish to rob her of them.'

'Father, it will make me so happy to have her!' whispered Audrey in her
father's ear.

Then the Doctor's eyes glistened with tenderness.

'It shall be as you wish, my dear,' he said very gently: 'Mollie shall
come. Your mother is very fond of her, and so am I. You will have
another daughter, E