she meant to compare his conduct with her own, and nothing that he said made any difference. He had been made ridiculous in my eyes and in his own.

Tom and Mr. Brandon were away some hours; but, while dressing me for dinner, Mrs. Brand told me they had returned, and brought a gentleman with them, who would stay and dine-a Doctor Limpsey; and the cook had received orders to keep back the dinner half an hour. "She says she never lived with such a trying family," continued Mrs. Brand. She is sure the dinner will be spoilt; and she is so nervous, she is hardly fit to dish up."

"Well, but if the dinner is spoilt, she need not worry; it will not be her fault."

"Gentlefolks don't consider that," said Mrs. Brand; "they don't know the difficulties there are below while they sit eating at their ease-nor the trouble of keeping jelly cold, and gravy hot, and the fish from burning, and the pudding from falling. Yet, if the dinner is not sent up as well as usual, you may depend on it, Mrs. Henfrey will speak about it to-morrow. Ladies always do."

Dr. Limpsey was a pleasant man, and did

his best to make the evening go off well. He' and Tom had a long and animated conversation, and then we had some duets; but Mr. Mortimer sat perfectly silent in his chair, and Mr. Brandon watched him, and was very grave.

Late in the evening, as I sat a little apart from the rest, Valentine came up and said,"You see, St. George did steal a march on I believe he went away mainly to bring Dr. Limpsey; and when he had got him, he just said to my father

me.

if he gave me a look. 'Yes.'"

that it might be as well
Father, of
Father, of course, said

“But what did the Doctor say?"

"Why, he said I was to eat bread and

milk for my breakfast.

At

At my age, too!"

"You don't like it, then?"

"If that fellow Prentice were to hear that I eat bread and milk for my breakfast, I should never hear the last of it."

"But surely, that was not all he said?"

"No; he poked and tapped, and listened with his ear at my chest; said I was to have a fire in my room all day; and remarked to father, as if I had been a sweet, unconscious infant, that I was a very fine young fellow,

and there was a thickening of the right lung. Then I was sent away, and not allowed to hear any more of their odious plans."

And he recurred to the prescription of his breakfast, and to Prentice, with such heartfelt annoyance, that I said,

"I am very fond of bread and milk; I shall ask if I may have some too; and I shall ask Liz to join. No doubt she will; and then, if anything does reach the ears of Prentice, it will be that some of the family and the guests have taken a liking to it, and generally eat it."

"You are a brick!" he exclaimed, "if ever there was one."

And the next morning three basins "smoked upon the board."

Valentine did not appear to feel at all uneasy about the remarks of the doctor on his health. He grumbled a good deal when he went into the morning room, because it had been decreed that for the present he was only to go out in fine weather; but he laid out his books and lexicons and exercises, and called on me to come and give my lesson, as if he found having some one to tyrannise over a setoff against the despotic orders of the physician.