t the child's fault," returned the dean, "that he is not so
elegant in his manners as his cousin. Had William been bred in the same
place, he would have been as unpolished as this boy."

"I beg your pardon, sir," said young William with a formal bow and a
sarcastic smile, "I assure you several of my tutors have told me, that I
appear to know many things as it were by instinct."

Young Henry fixed his eyes upon his cousin, while, with steady
self-complacency, he delivered this speech, and no sooner was it
concluded than Henry cried out in a kind of wonder,

"A little man! as I am alive, a little man! I did not know there were
such little men in this country! I never saw one in my life before!"

"This is a boy," said the dean; "a boy not older than yourself."

He put their hands together, and William gravely shook hands with his
cousin.

"It _is_ a man," continued young Henry; then stroked his cousin's chin.
"No, no, I do not know whether it is or not."

"I tell you again," said the dean, "he is a boy of your own age; you and
he are cousins, for I am his father."

"How can that be?" said young Henry. "He called you _Sir_."

"In this country," said the dean, "polite children do not call their
parents _father_ and _mother_."

"Then don't they sometimes forget to love them as such?" asked Henry.

His uncle became now impatient to interrogate him in every particular
concerning his father's state. Lady Clementina felt equal impatience to
know where the father was, whether he were coming to live with them,
wanted anything of them, and every circumstance in which her vanity was
interested. Explanations followed all these questions; but which,
exactly agreeing with what the elder Henry's letter has related, require
no recital here.

CHAPTER XII.

That vanity which presided over every thought and deed of Lady Clementina
was the protector of young Henry within her house. It represented to her
how amiable her conduct would appear in the eye of the world should she
condescend to treat this destitute nephew as her own son; what envy such
heroic virtue would excite in the hearts of her particular friends, and
what grief in the bosoms of all those who did not like her.

The dean was a man of no inconsiderable penetration. He understood the
thoughts which, upon this occasion, passed in the mind of his wife, and
in order to ensure her kind treatment of the boy, instead of reproaching
her for the cold manner