Miss Toose^'s Mission" and "L
 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 * MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION" AND "LADDIE." 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 1884.
 
 In one Volume, Price 75 cents. 
 MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION 
 
 AND 
 
 LADDIE. 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.^
 
 TZ7 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 - CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " The Poor, old Grandfather ! " 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Reading the Will 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A Sore Heart 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Plans for the Future 40 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 An Opening 54 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Last Day in the Old Home 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Slowmill 76 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Tip Cat 88 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The New Life 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Weekly Bills 109 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Tipton Farm 121 
 
 622821
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Ways and Means .... 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A Visit to Bristol 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Notice to Leave ....... . ...... IS 1 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Flitting ..... : . . . .- ....... l6 3 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Tea at the Grange .............. i?4 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Letty's Birthday .............. 194 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 An Unexpected Meeting ........... 205 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 *' Tip Cat, Remember Your Promise." ....... 217 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 To the Rescue .............. 230 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Poor Dick ................ 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Getting Well . .............. 254' 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Dick's Obstinacy .............. 266 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 " For my Sake." .............. 275
 
 TIP CAT. 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " THE POOR, OLD GRANDFATHER ! " 
 
 WHEN there was a funeral at a house on the other 
 side of the street, Letty and Sybil were allowed to 
 stand at the nursery window, and watch all that went 
 on, though nurse would not allow them to have the 
 window open and to lean out, as she and Martha did, 
 to see it turn the corner into the square, but the 
 children saw a good deal, and, for weeks after, fun- 
 erals was their favorite game, and they even per- 
 suaded nurse to dress the doll Sybil had on her birth- 
 day as a widow. 
 
 So it seemed very hard to the children that when 
 there was a funeral at their own house, the nursery 
 blinds were kept closely drawn down, and they were
 
 6 TIP CAT. 
 
 not allowed to raise even one little corner to peep 
 out, though they heard nurse telling Martha that it 
 was the finest funeral there had been for years, and 
 though she and Martha disappeared into the night 
 nursery, and locked the door, and Letty and Sybil 
 were almost sure that they were having a look them- 
 selves, though they would not allow the children to 
 do so. 
 
 It was the children's grandfather who died, and 
 nurse said they were very 'eartless because they did 
 not cry when she told them he was dead, though she 
 sniffed a good deal herself behind the corner of her 
 apron, and gave them each a clean pocket-handker- 
 chief for the same purpose ; and Letty and Sybil both 
 tried their best, and thought of the doll he had given 
 them, and of the grapes he put on their plate when 
 they came down to dessert ; but though they blinked 
 their eyes very hard, they kept quite dry, and just then 
 the kitten jumped up at nurse's apron string and 
 made them laugh, and nurse said they were 'eartless ; 
 and when she went on to tell them that Mr. Dick was 
 coming home, it was no use the children trying to 
 look sad any longer, and it was as much as they 
 could do to resist dancing round the room. Dick was 
 their own brother, and quite grown up, but not grown
 
 " THE *POOR, OLD GRANDPA THER." 7 
 
 up dull like most people ; he was not too old to enjoy 
 a game of blind man's buff, or feeding the ducks in 
 the Serpentine, or a long afternoon in the Zoological 
 Gardens with a really satisfactory time devoted to 
 the monkeys ; and it was not only just to please the 
 children, with a sort of kind, patient endurance, like 
 most grown up people, which spoils half the pleasure, 
 but because he liked it himself ; and when he took 
 them to the Pantomime he always took three seats 
 in a row, and sat between his two little sisters, so that 
 they should all see just the same ; and he laughed 
 quite as much and much louder than either of them 
 instead of putting the little ones in front and retiring 
 to the back of the box, and yawning like Uncle Tom. 
 Dick was at Oxford when his grandfather died, 
 and they telegraphed for him to come at once. Old 
 Mr. Lucas died very suddenly. He seemed quite 
 wetl when he came in to dinner, and Letty< and 
 Sybil had their white frocks put on, and went down 
 to dessert as usual ; and they did not notice that he 
 was silent, for he always was so, and the little girls 
 never remembered on any occasion his saying more 
 to them than, " Good girl, good girl ! " and patting 
 them on the head, as if he were thinking of anything 
 in the world except his little granddaughters. Sybil
 
 8 TIP CAT. 
 
 fancied that he said, " bless you," as she kissed his 
 gray whisker, but Letty did not hear him. 
 
 He went into the library behind the dining-room 
 after dinner, as he generally did when he was alone, 
 and had his coffee taken to him there, and when Jen- 
 kins went in to ask if he wanted anything more, he 
 was writing letters at the table, and there they found 
 him next morning, dead, apd lys head had fallen for- 
 ward on to a letter he had jjus't begun to Dick. " My 
 dear Dick," and that was allN(( J 
 
 Dick always kept that blotted sheet among his 
 most precious possessions, and when people said 
 that the old man had dealt unfairly with him and 
 the little girls, and blamed him, and it was hard to 
 find an answer for them in a very sore heart, Dick 
 
 would get out the" -paper and look at it with tears in 
 
 ^v~ / ^^^ ^^ ^^""r\ I "~~ 
 
 his eyes and say, " Poor old fellow, he meant to set 
 
 it right ; it wasn't his fault." 
 
 The old grandfather was certainly very fond of 
 Dick, though he was nearly as silent with him as he 
 was with the little girls ; but Dick was used to him, 
 and would chatter away to him about his school life 
 and the fun he had, and the friends, and the fights, 
 and the mischief, without being discouraged by only 
 receiving a grunt or an absent, preoccupied look for
 
 "THE POOR, OLD GRANDFATHER." 9 
 
 all response. And Dick was very fond of him ; the 
 boy had been sent home from India when he was 
 quite a baby, so the dull, old house in Bedford Place 
 had been the only home he had ever known, and the 
 silent, grave, old grandfather had taken the place of 
 his parents, for long letters on foreign paper cannot 
 replace daily intercourse, however kind and loving 
 they may be. Dick was quite a big boy when Letty 
 and Sybil came home to England, and he was just 
 going to leave school. Four little baby brothers had 
 been born between Dick and Letty, but they had all 
 died, and the poor mother kept the two little girls with 
 her as long as she dared, and it nearly broke her heart 
 parting from them, and the children will never for- 
 get how she looked when she said, " Good-bye, my 
 darlings ; love one another, and be good to grand- 
 papa and brother Dick till I come home." 
 
 It was only six months afterwards that the news 
 came that both Colonel and Mrs. Lucas had died of 
 cholera, Dick told the little girls. He came up 
 into the nursery and took them on his knees and 
 put his arms round them, and they each rested her 
 head on his shoulder. They were very little then 
 and did not understand, it was all so strange ; and 
 they did not cry, for Dick said that father and mother
 
 io TIP CAT. 
 
 were not farther off, for heaven was nearer than 
 India. 
 
 " But, Dick," Letty said, wistfully, " they won't 
 ever come home now ? " 
 
 " They've gone home," he answered ; " and 
 we'll go home too, some day." 
 
 The only people who did not like Dick were 
 Uncle Tom and Aunt Maria. Uncle Tom was 
 Colonel Lucas's younger brother, and he had always 
 been the steady, hard-working, industrious one ; 
 and, while the Colonel was extravagant and reckless 
 and wild, and got into debt over aW over again, 
 
 Uncle Tom was always quiet and well-behaved and 
 
 J 
 never gave old Mr. Lucas any trouble,-^nd married 
 
 Aunt Maria, who was a good deal older than him- 
 self and had a large fortune. Uncle Tom had been 
 a partner in the bank for some years, and was very 
 well off, and had a very elegant house in Regent's 
 Park and two little girls, whom Letty and Sybil cor- 
 dially disliked, as they were very prim and well-be- 
 haved, and were constantly held up as examples of 
 lady-like conduct by nurse and Martha. But as 
 Uncle Tom was so rich and comfortable, it seemed 
 very strange that he should have been so displeased 
 when his father offered to have Dick to live with
 
 " THE POOR, OLD GRANDPA THER." 1 1 
 
 him, for the Colonel had very little money, and had 
 married a wife without a penny, though she was 
 beautiful and good. But nevertheless Uncle Tom 
 seemed to grudge every penny that was spent on the 
 boy's education, and he was quite angry at the idea 
 of his being sent to Oxford. He never ventured to 
 say anything to the old man about it, but he showed 
 what he felt to Dick plainly enough) and nothing 
 made him so furious as when any one spoke of Dick 
 as his grandfather's heir. 
 
 But to go back to the day that the old man died. 
 Dick was telegraphed for ; but as he was away from 
 Oxford that day, he did not get the message till the 
 afternoon, and it was quite the evening before he 
 came into the nursery with such a real look of sorrow 
 in his face that the children were 'eartless no longer, 
 but ran to him crying and clung round his neck 
 sobbing. They had never seen any one grown up 
 cry before, for their mother's tears at parting had 
 been hidden away under smiles that were a hundred 
 times more sad, and as for nurse's sniffing behind 
 her apron, they were not taken in by that ; but the 
 little choke in Dick's voice as he said, " The poor, old 
 grandfather," touched the hearts that nurse had 
 thought so very hard and unfeeling.
 
 12 TIP CAT. 
 
 They sat all cuddled up together in the rocking 
 chair, just as they had done when the news came 
 from India that their father and mother had gone 
 home, only the arms that clung round Dick's neck 
 were longer, and there was down on the cheeks 
 against which the children's pressed. 
 
 Uncle Tom had come in the morning, and had 
 stood by the nursery table, where Letty and Sybil 
 had been arranging the Noah's Ark animals in pairs 
 to follow the funeral of one of the elephants, whom 
 nurse had stepped on and fatally injured in the morn- 
 ing. He leant his hands on the table and kept sway- 
 ing backwards and forwards, and the children were 
 so afraid that he would upset the giraffes, who were 
 very unsteady on their feet, that they did not pay 
 much attention to what he said about afflictive dis- 
 pensations and decrees of Providence. 
 
 In the afternoon Aunt Maria arrived, and was 
 present when the milliner came to take orders for 
 the mourning, much to nurse's irritation. It was as 
 much as either nurse or the milliner could do to 
 answer civilly when Aunt Maria insisted on modera- 
 tion in the depth of crape and the quality of para- 
 matta, when, as nurse remarked in an aside to the 
 milliner, " It's the poor little dears' own Gran'pa,
 
 "THE POOR, OLD GRANDFATHER!" 13 
 
 and made of money ! " to which the milliner replied, 
 with a sigh, " Yes, poor dear gentleman." 
 
 But though nurse managed to restrain her feelings 
 in the nursery, it was a different matter when Aunt 
 Maria went downstairs to speak about the servants' 
 mourning, and there was a regular scene with Mrs. 
 Treasure, the cook-housekeeper, who had ruled 
 supreme for twenty years, and knew to a halfpenny 
 the amount that propriety demanded should be spent 
 on servants' mourning in well-regulated establish- 
 ments. This was not the first time that she and 
 Aunt Maria had had a battle royal, as that lady had 
 felt herself called upon, more than once, to enter a 
 protest against the reckless extravagance that ruled 
 in the kitchen in Bedford Place, but had, on each 
 occasion, been obliged to retire before Mrs. Treas- 
 ure's determined front ; and when she appealed to 
 the master of the house, a very absent-minded grunt 
 was all she got out of him after nearly half an hour's 
 solemn accusation, and only Dick, who was present 
 on the occasion, saw a little twinkle in the old man's 
 eye when the discomfited lady took her departure, 
 which showed that he had not been altogether so in- 
 attentive as Aunt Maria had thought. 
 
 To-day, however, Mrs. Treasure was not so entire-
 
 14 TIP CAT. 
 
 ly self-possessed as on former occasions, so that 
 she did not reply to Mrs. Tom Lucas with the " Yes, 
 mum," " No, mum," " Really, mum," which were 
 almost as inscrutable and irritating as her master's 
 grunts. She had been really overcome by the sud- 
 den death of her old master, whom she had served 
 faithfully according to her lights, at any rate not al- 
 lowing any one else to rob him, and you might, as 
 the children heard her tell nurse, have knocked her 
 down with a feather, which expression impressed 
 them strongly, as Mrs. Treasure was a very substantial 
 person, standing peculiarly square and firm on her 
 feet. So, on this occasion, she forgot herself and 
 the character she was bound to keep up before " the 
 gals," who were listening giggling behind the pantry 
 door, and she gave Aunt Maria a piece of her mind, 
 and told her that now the old master was gone, they 
 looked to Mr. Dick as their master, and they " wouldn't 
 stand any interference, were it ever so," at which 
 Aunt Maria turned a pale green, and swept out of 
 the kitchen with as much dignity as she could com- 
 mand, leaving Mrs. Treasure to subside into hysterics 
 on one of the kitchen chairs, which lasted so long, 
 and required such constant attention from her sym- 
 pathising fellow-servants, with smelling-salts and 

 
 "THE POOR, OLD GRANDFATHER!" 15 
 
 burnt feathers, and patting the palms of her hands, 
 and applying water outwardly and peppermint inward- 
 ly to bring her to, that nurse and Martha were both 
 called down to help in the difficult process of restora- 
 tion, and that was how it was that Letty and Sybil 
 were alone in the nursery when Dick came in. 
 
 I think it was the news of his arrival that ultimately 
 roused Mrs. Treasure, and nothing would do but 
 that she must prepare dinner for him with her own 
 hands. " As sha'n't feel no difference if I can help 
 it, and always liked curry from a child, bless him ! " 
 Jenkins too bustled about, fetching up choice wine 
 from the cellar and laying the dinner with its usual 
 pompous accessories of solid plate and old-fashioned 
 cut glass in the gloomy dining-room, where evening 
 after evening the old grandfather had dined by him- 
 self in solitary state. 
 
 But Dick sat with the children in the nursery, only 
 lighted by the big, blazing fire, which shone on the 
 robins on the wall-paper and the colored pictures 
 from the Illustrated pinned on the walls, and on the 
 doll's house in the corner, with Noah's ark standing 
 on the top of it, and by and by, when Martha came 
 running up to put on the kettle for tea for tea 
 time had been quite forgotten in the prevailing ex-
 
 1 6 TIP CAT. 
 
 citement in the house Dick asked them to bring his 
 dinner up there, and he and the children had quite 
 a merry tea dinner after all, when their eyes were 
 dried ; for Dick did not seem to think it wrong to 
 laugh, or expect every one to speak very low, and 
 sigh at the end of each sentence, as nurse did.
 
 READING THE WILL. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 READING THE WILL. 
 
 DURING the four days that passed after their 
 grandfather's death and before the funeral, the chil- 
 dren saw very little of Dick. There was a great deal 
 to be arranged, and every one turned to Dick for 
 directions. Mr. Murchison, the lawyer, was there 
 every day with Dick and Uncle Tom, looking through 
 the papers in the library. Mr. Murchison was an 
 old friend of Mr. Lucas's, and used often to come 
 and dine with him, and he was fond of Dick and kind 
 to the little girls, for whom he brought little, oblong, 
 wooden boxes of rose lozenges, and whom he had 
 now and then to tea in his chambers in Bedford 
 Row. 
 
 But this week the children thought he was not at 
 all nice or pleasant, when by chance they came 
 across him, for he hardly took any notice of them,
 
 1 8 TIP CAT. 
 
 and would not look at a gutta-percha face they had 
 bought, just because it was like one of his clerks. 
 He seemed in a great fuss and anxiety, and Dick too 
 got to look troubled, though he did not tell the little 
 girls the reason when he came, as he always did, 
 into the nursery in the evening. But servants always 
 know what is going on in a house in some mysterious 
 way, without intentional prying or eavesdropping, 
 and it was soon generally known in the house that 
 old Mr. Lucas's will could not be found, and that 
 unless it was, all the money would go to Uncle Tom, 
 and Dick would have nothing. 
 
 Though Letty and Sybil heard nurse talking 
 about it, they did not at all understand what it would 
 mean to them and Dick, but they felt the relief when, 
 the day before the funeral, they heard the library 
 door open and Mr. Murchison's voice raised in much 
 more cheerful tones than it had been, and Dick's 
 answering in the same key. 
 
 The nursery door was open and the house so quiet 
 that the children could hear quite plainly what they 
 said. 
 
 "Well, that's a comfort! I began to think it 
 might have been destroyed, which would have been 
 a mighty bad job for you, Master Dick. That's your
 
 READING THE WILL. 19 
 
 grandfather all over, a good man of business as ever 
 lived, poor fellow ; fastened up and dated and dock- 
 eted ' My last Will and Testament.' Oh, I know 
 well enough all about it, for I drew it myself. I'll 
 call in on my way to the office and tell Mr. Tom that 
 it's come to hand." 
 
 And then Dick came springing upstairs, three 
 steps at a time, with a slackening of pace as he 
 passed the door of that silent room, and came into 
 the nursery with his face beaming free of all the 
 trouble that had gathered there before. 
 
 " It's all right," he said, "it's found," as if he had 
 told the little girls all about the missing will, and the 
 search for it ; and they did not pretend not to under- 
 stand, but were as glad as he was about i f . 
 
 Dick talked more that evening than he had ever 
 done before of what he meant to do. The clvldren 
 had imagined that Dick would step at once into 
 grandfather's place, and live always in Bedford Place, 
 and go every day to the bank, only not stop there so 
 long as grandfather, but come in soon enough to take 
 them out. They had made up their minds that they 
 would dine late every day with Dick, and that most 
 likely they should go once a week at least, if not 
 every day, to the pantomime, and quite as often to
 
 20 TIP CAT. 
 
 the Zoological Gardens. So they were a little dis- 
 appointed when he said that he should go back to 
 Oxford, perhaps as soon as next week, and that he 
 thought he should try and find some place in the 
 country where Letty and Sybil could go with nurse 
 and Martha, and where he could come whenever he 
 could get away, for he would not be parted for long 
 together from his little sisters ; and when Oxford was 
 done with, and he came back to London and was 
 called to the Bar, they should all live together again, 
 and Letty and Sybil should keep house for brother 
 Dick. 
 
 It did not quite satisfy the children's minds, as it 
 was too far in the future, and Dick also mentioned 
 governesses and masters as part of the programme ; 
 but when they had arranged some- of the details of 
 the future establishment, and had settled that Letty 
 should have the keys because she was the eldest, but 
 that they should take it by turns to pour out Dick's 
 coffee and sit at the end of the table, and that they 
 would not both go out with him always, because it 
 was nicer going in a hansom than a four-wheeler, the 
 prospect grew very attractive and did not seem so 
 very distant after all. 
 
 Next day was the funeral, and, as I have said,
 
 READING THE WILL. 21 
 
 Letty and Sybil were not allowed to watch it from 
 the nursery windows, nor to open the nursery door 
 and look over the banisters to catch a glimpse of 
 anything passing below. Uncle Tom and Dick were 
 the chief mourners, and there were some cousins 
 and nephews of the old man, and some old friends 
 and the doctor, and Mr. Murchison. 
 
 There seemed a smell everywhere of black kid 
 gloves and crape, and the little girls sat up very stiff 
 in their black frocks, which, in spite of Aunt Maria's 
 injunctions of moderation, displayed as deep a woe 
 as crape could express, and were so stiff and rough 
 to the hands and round the throat that they certainly" 
 did not represent the luxury of woe. 
 
 After the funeral had been gone about half an 
 hour, and when it was too late to see anything of it, 
 the blinds were drawn up in all the rooms, making 
 everything look coarse and glaring after the subdued 
 half-light they had been seen in during the last few 
 days. 
 
 The children were hungry, and as they heard 
 symptoms of luncheon being laid in the dining-room, 
 and nurse was out of the way, they thought they 
 would go for a voyage of discovery. The door of 
 their grandfather's room was open, and they stopped
 
 22 TIP CAT. 
 
 and looked in. Dick had done all he could to prevent 
 the children having an unreasonable terror of death, 
 and nurse had done all she could to give them that 
 terror ; and they took hold of each other's hands as 
 they looked in with a sort of awe. They had often 
 been in there before in the old man's life time,when he 
 was not there, and now it was just the same as it had 
 always been : all the furniture unaltered and in the 
 same places, and yet the room looked empty, as it 
 had never looked before, and the children ran on 
 with a wish to escape from the emptiness that only 
 death can leave, and to be nearer the life that 
 sounded from below with the cheerful clinking of 
 glass and china, and opening doors and brisk foot- 
 steps. 
 
 But they had only just reached the dining-room, 
 and had only given one rapid survey of the table, and 
 had not had time to help themselves even to one of 
 the little, round dinner-rolls perched on the top of 
 each of the mitre-shaped dinner-napkins, when a cab 
 drove up to the door, and Aunt Maria's face appear- 
 ing at the cab window sent them hurrying upstairs 
 again and past the open, empty room without a 
 thought of its awfulness. 
 
 So they had to wait patiently till nurse brought up
 
 READING THE WILL. 23 
 
 their dinner, and told them that luncheon was going 
 on iu the dining-room, and that when it was over the 
 will was to be read in the library. 
 
 " Shall we go down ? " asked Letty ; but nurse 
 shook her head and said that little girls were not 
 wanted on such occasions. But she was wrong, for 
 the little girls had only just said their grace and taken 
 off their pinafores, when Dick came up to fetch them, 
 and they went down, each holding one of his hands, 
 which made it rather a squeeze to get down stairs. 
 
 He was looking a little bit vexed and worried. 
 Some of the nephews and cousins who came to the 
 funeral were poor, and could not help, poor souls, 
 feeling a little envious of Dick, with whom life 
 seemed going so much more smoothly than it ever 
 had done with them, and now and then through lun- 
 cheon, a word or a look would show what they felt, 
 and wounded Dick's kind, gentle heart that would 
 have made the whole world rich and happy and good 
 if he could. 
 
 In the library they were all assembled when Dick 
 and his little sisters came in. There was an- 
 other lady present beside Aunt Maria. t A niece of 
 old Mr. Lucas, a depressed, rather mouldy-looking 
 widow, who sniffed at any pause in the conversa-
 
 24 TIP CAT. 
 
 tion and echoed all Aunt Maria's opinions almost 
 before she had heard what they were. Aunt Maria 
 sat very upright in an arm-chair, and beckoned to 
 the children to come to her when they came in ; but 
 they pretended not to see her signal, but followed 
 Dick to his chair rather behind Mr. Murchison, who 
 sat up to the table with some papers before him. 
 Mrs. Treasure and Jenkins were also there, Mrs. 
 Treasure resplendent in creaking mourning, with her 
 handkerchief in her hand and with eyes that care- 
 fully avoided Aunt Maria, though she sat directly 
 opposite. Uncle Tom sat on the other side of Mr. 
 Murchison, looking rather sulky, and as the children 
 looked from one face to another of the assembled 
 company, they all appeared to them cross, or dull, or 
 tired, or sad, all except Dick, who smiled and put 
 his arms round his little sisters as they stood on 
 either side of him, while Mr. Murchison, after a few 
 remarks, began with slow, precise fingers to break 
 the seals of the paper in his hand and untie the red 
 tape with which it was fastened. 
 
 " Our old friend," he said, " was always a good man 
 of business, a capital man of business, the order and 
 arrangement of his papers might really be an ex- 
 ample to many of us, eh, master Dick ? And when 
 he gave me instructions for the will, by Jove, sir, a
 
 READING THE WILL. 25 
 
 lawyer himself could not have done it better, though 
 I say it. To be sure it was simple enough, but he 
 had thought of everything, and nothing, had escaped 
 his memory. It was really quite a treat to do busi- 
 ness with such a man." And here Mr. Murchison 
 drew the paper out of the covering and began unfold- 
 ing the sheet of foolscap, with a little glance round 
 at the attentive faces whose eyes watched every 
 movement. " He was certainly the best man of 
 
 bus ," and here he suddenly stopped, and his 
 
 mouth dropped open with a jerk, and his eyebrows 
 rose, giving his eyes, for once, a chance of looking out, 
 without being obscured by shaggy, grey hair, which 
 they did, though his double eye-glasses fell from the 
 bridge of his nose with a resounding thud on the 
 paper which made every one start. And then he got 
 up from his chair and settled his eye-glasses again 
 on his nose with a hand that trembled, and he turned 
 to the window as if to get more light on the subject. 
 There was not much light to be sure in the room, 
 but there was too much on the foolscap paper to 
 allow any doubt even for a second. There was no 
 signature to the will. 
 
 It was Dick who said it first, his arms tightened 
 round his little sisters for a moment and then he 
 spoke, " It is not signed."
 
 26 TIP CAT, 
 
 There was a moment's silence and then a voice from 
 the other side of the room said, " Then it is worth 
 nothing." It was Aunt Maria, and Mrs. Bush, the 
 depressed widow, hastened to echo the words, 
 " Then it is worth " but was frightened into si- 
 lence by the glare with which Mr. Murchison turned 
 round on her. 
 
 Then he went back to that useless examination 
 turning and twisting the paper as if he did not know 
 (who better ?) that without the signature the will was 
 not worth the paper it was written on. There was 
 the sort of silence just then which people describe 
 as one in which you could hear a pin drop, but Dick 
 broke it. He put Letty and Sybil gently away from 
 him and stood up, and his face was very white and 
 did not look as young as it had done a minute ago, 
 and his voice was a little husky. 
 
 " Of course," he said, " it is worth nothing if it 
 is not signed, and we must ask Mr. Murchison to 
 read the other will, which will hold good now." 
 
 But Mr. Murchison could not take it as calmly as 
 Dick appeared to do ; any one to look at him might 
 have thought that it was he who had lost a large 
 inheritance for want of a few shaky lines of an old 
 man's writing.
 
 READING THE WILL. 27 
 
 " It's a mistake," he said, " the most extraordi- 
 nary mistake I ever knew in my life. Mr. Tom, I 
 never thought your father was failing in mind before, 
 but he must have been. And to think that he should 
 have kept the old will when he knew as well as I do 
 that it was waste paper as soon as another was made. 
 Oh, what fools people are ! " the old lawyer burst 
 out, flinging down the unsigned will and running his 
 fingers through his gray hair as if he would tear it 
 out. 
 
 Uncle Tom sat rubbing one fat hand over the other 
 and staring vacantly before him with his mouth in a 
 whistling position, while the eyes of all the others 
 were fixed on the lawyer with various expressions. 
 
 Dick had sat down again, and his hands, which the 
 children held, were cold, and his lips dry, but he said, 
 " We had better hear the old will, sir." 
 
 The old will had been found pushed away in a 
 pigeon-hole in the library, with some old diaries and 
 letters of no value except as recalling old times ; it 
 was discblored and dirty, and there was a splash of 
 ink on the back, and the ink had grown pale in the 
 twenty-two years that had passed since it was 
 written. 
 
 Mr. Murchison had drawn that too, and remem-
 
 28 TIP CAT. 
 
 * 
 
 bered the time\well, before Dick was born and when 
 the old man had just paid off Captain Lucas's debts 
 for the third time, and declared it should be the last 
 penny the ungrateful, extravagant son should get out 
 of him, and that all he had should go to Tom, who 
 had never given him half an hour's trouble or anxiety 
 in his life, " or pleasure either," the old man had 
 added in one of his rare moments of confidence, with 
 a smile and a sigh for the scapegrace son whom he 
 loved in spite of all. Mr. Murchison's hand shook 
 as he unfolded the old paper, and his voice was so 
 unsteady in reading it that Aunt Maria had to lean 
 forward and put her hand to her ear to catch the full 
 significance of the words that bequeathed all the old 
 man's real and personal estate to his dear son 
 Thomas Lucas. There were a few small legacies, 
 and io/. to each of the servants in his service at the 
 time of his death. Mrs. Treasure and Jenkins had 
 been young servants then, but they were old when 
 that unsigned will had been drawn, and their master 
 had left them a handsome legacy each, but' now they 
 were entitled to no more than little Lucy, the kitchen 
 maid, who had only been in the place three weeks. 
 I think they felt it more, or perhaps realized it more, 
 even than Dick did, and Mrs. Treasure lost all her
 
 READING THE WILL. 29 
 
 portly defiance of manner, and went out of the room 
 looking quite shabby and old and stooping, followed 
 by Jenkins, who went off to the pantry and then and 
 there got tipsy in cold blood, a thing he had never 
 done in his life before. 
 
 When Mr. Murchison had finished reading he sat 
 quite still, leaning back in his chair, and Dick also 
 said nothing while the cousins and nephews edged 
 their chairs nearer to one another and began talking' 
 in under-tones, with glances towards Uncle Tom and 
 Dick. 
 
 And then Uncle Tom, who had been fidgeting his 
 feet and clearing his throat nervously for some min- 
 utes, got up and leaned across the table to Dick. 
 
 " Dick," he said, " it shan't make any difference 
 to you, my boy. We know what he meant to do for 
 you, and " 
 
 But just then Aunt Maria came in between, and 
 Uncle Tom's outstretched hand dropped to his side 
 and his voice died away. She was tying her bonnet- 
 strings and buttoning her cloak. 
 
 " It is getting late, Tom," she said, " and we must 
 be going home. I think we had better take a night 
 to consider what it is right to do under the circum- 
 stances. Good-by, Dick. Good-by, little girls."
 
 30 TIP CA T. 
 
 She kissed Letty before the child saw what she 
 was going to do, but Sybil saw what was coming, and 
 ducked her head so as to receive Aunt Maria's peck 
 on the back of her neck. She stood a minute at the 
 door while Uncle Tom fumbled under the table for 
 his gloves, and she looked round the room with a 
 glance of proprietorship that struck even the children 
 as something new, as if it all belonged to her, Sybil 
 said ; and she examined a spot of grease on the 
 bookcase and rubbed it off, just as she would have 
 done at home, and she felt the material of the thick 
 curtain over the door as if to see what it might fetch. 
 
 Dick got up with his usual courtesy to show her 
 out and put her into the cab, having always been 
 used in his grandfather's time to act the host, but 
 to-day Aunt Maria did not appear to notice his offer 
 of politeness, and the color rushed up into Dick's 
 face, at this first hint, that he was no longer master 
 in the old house. 
 
 The sympathy he met with from the cousins was 
 almost more painful, and when one of them declared 
 that he had been shamefully treated, and that the old 
 man must have been a lunatic, and that if he were 
 Dick he would go to law about it and have his rights, 
 Dick could hardly resist kicking him, but he forbore,
 
 READING THE WILL. 31 
 
 and only said that his grandfather was the best and 
 wisest man he knew, and the poor cousin went home 
 more contented with the little, shabby house at Cam- 
 berwell, and the anxious wife and six children who 
 made such a pitiful struggle to be genteel on ^150 
 a year, compared with the prospects of the young 
 fellow who had suddenly exchanged riches for pov- 
 erty. Mr. Murchison's grim silence was much more 
 soothing to poor Dick, but even he soon took his de- 
 parture, and the little girls went up to the nursery to 
 tea, and Dick was left alone.
 
 32 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A SORE HEART. 
 
 DICK did not come up to the nursery tea that 
 evening as he generally did, and nurse insisted on 
 the children going to bed early, principally because 
 she wanted to join the conclave in the kitchen, who 
 were discussing the events of the day. There was 
 not one of the servants who was not heartily sorry 
 for Dick and the two little girls, a great deal more 
 sorry for the children than they were for themselves, 
 for they did not understand all the difference that 
 missing signature made to them ; but in spite of the 
 servants' pity there was somehow an alteration in 
 their behavior that the children felt without under- 
 standing it. I do not think that Letty and Sybil 
 would have been shuffled off to bed an hour earlier 
 than usual if the will had been different, and when 
 Sybil said she was thirsty and asked for some milk, 
 nurse said there was none up stairs, and gave her
 
 A SORE HEART. 33 
 
 some water, instead of sending Martha down for 
 some. 
 
 It was just the same with Dick. They were all so 
 fond of him and so sorry for him, but the feeling 
 that he was no longer the young master crept unin- 
 tentionally into all they did, and perhaps he was 
 unusually sensitive just then, and noticed little things 
 he would not have thought of in former days ; but 
 the tears came pricking into his eyes when there 
 was no spoon put for him to eat his soup with at 
 dinner, and when the potatoes were burnt, though 
 he was never one to think much of state and for- 
 mality, or to care about little niceties of food or cook- 
 ery, and he had more than a suspicion that poor old 
 Jenkins had been taking more than was good for 
 him, and that Mrs Treasure was hysterical, which 
 would account for everything. 
 
 I suppose it was because the children had gone 
 to bed earlier than usual that Letty and Sybil could 
 not sleep, and, after a while, Sybil came stealing 
 across and got into Letty's bed, and they talked 
 with all the more satisfaction because they knew that 
 talking after they were in bed was strictly forbidden. 
 But there was no one to hear them, for nurse and 
 Martha were both down stairs ; and by and by Sybil
 
 34 TIP CAT. 
 
 fancied that the kitten had got at nurse's work-basket 
 and was tangling the reels of cotton ; so the children 
 felt it to be their duty to get up and put a stop to such 
 reckless havoc as pussy was sure to work, and when 
 they got into the day-nursery, though they found 
 nothing of the sort going on, and that much maligned 
 animal fast asleep in front of the fire, still they did 
 not return forthwith to bed, but drew their little 
 chairs up to the fender, and warmed their toes with 
 the delightful feeling that they were doing something 
 utterly unallowable. 
 
 " You see," said Sybil, " we can get back into bed 
 directly we hear nurse coming upstairs." 
 
 The house was very quiet, and the children soon 
 grew tired of sitting by the fire, and felt disposed 
 for further adventures. 
 
 " I wonder where Dick is," Letty said, " and why 
 he did not come and talk to us this evening ? but I 
 daresay he would if nurse had not made us go to 
 bed." 
 
 " I wish he would come now," said Sybil. " Oh, 
 Letty ! let's go and find him. I dare say he's in the 
 library, and very dull all by himself, and thinks we're 
 asleep. Nurse won't know. We'll creep down on 
 tiptoe, and make Dick come up here with us."
 
 A SORE HEART. 35 
 
 No sooner said than done. They found their 
 dressing-gowns and little slippers, and because Sybil 
 thought that the kitten would be frightened at being 
 left all alone, they took her with them.' They passed 
 the door of -their grandfather's bedroom very fast, 
 for it was a little way open, and Letty fancied she 
 heard a sound inside, and was not sure there was not 
 light shining through the crack. 
 
 But when they reached the library they found, to 
 their disappointment, that Dick was not there. He 
 must have been sitting there, for there was a news- 
 paper lying by the arm-chair and some letters in 
 Dick's writing on the table, but he was not there. 
 Neither was he in the dining-room, where the re- 
 mains of dinner were still spread on the table. 
 
 " Perhaps he has gone out," whispered Sybil. 
 
 But no ; there was his hat in the hall. 
 
 " Can he have gone to bed so early ? " 
 
 Dick's bedroom was on the same floor as old Mr. 
 Lucass,' and just as they got to his door, pussy, 
 who had been struggling a good deal all the way, 
 escaped from Sybil's hold and ran right into the old 
 man's room ; and before the children had time to 
 think what they were about, they had followed her in. 
 There was some one there, and they stood thunder
 
 36 TIP CAT. 
 
 struck, hardly knowing if nurse or a ghost were most 
 to be feared or expected, and Dick (for it was he) 
 looking up, saw two little things in scarlet dressing 
 gowns, with rough heads and big, round eyes staring 
 at him aghast. And well they might, for Dick looked 
 up at them with a face that was not a bit like the 
 Dick they knew and loved the bright, happy, trust- 
 ing Dick, fearless and frank. 
 
 His candle stood on the toilet-table, guttering, 
 with a thief in it, and he was sitting with his arms 
 stretched out across the table and his head on his 
 arms, and behind was the window with the blind 
 drawn up all crooked, showing the foggy night out- 
 side and" the dark houses opposite, giving an unut- 
 terably dreary effect to the room. His face was quite 
 of a piece with the room ; so sad and hopeless, and 
 set and grey : but it cleared and altered in a moment 
 the moment he saw his little sisters and he held 
 out his arms and they rushed into them. 
 
 " Oh, Dick ! we've been looking for you every- 
 where ; oh, Dick, come away from this horrid room ; 
 come into the nursery." 
 
 "All right," he said, "you two little scarlet ghosts. 
 They told me you were in bed an hour ago." 
 
 " So we were, Dick ; but we couldn't sleep, and 
 we wanted you."
 
 A SORE HEART. 37 
 
 " Come along then," 
 
 He took Sybil up in his arms and held Letty's 
 hand ; but before they left the room he stopped by 
 the empty bed, and spoke very soft and gently : 
 " Dear, dear old grandfather, we know it was all a 
 mistake ; we quite understand, Letty, Sybil, and I. 
 You meant to do all that was kind and generous for 
 us ; and whatever people may say, we shall always 
 be grateful and loving in our thought of you." 
 
 That half-hour before nurse came bustling up and 
 swept the two little girls off to bed again, was wonder- 
 fully soothing to Dick's poor, sore, sick young heart, 
 though Sybil fell asleep in his arms and Letty only 
 rested her soft cheek against his arm as she sat in 
 her little chair by his side, and looked up with great, 
 loving eyes and said, " Poor old Dick ! dear old 
 Dick ! " without understanding one fraction of all the 
 weight that was settling down on her young brother. 
 
 He had been feeling so bad, and bitter and resent- 
 ful. When all the relations were gone, and even 
 Mr. Murchison had left, with only a few words, being 
 too upset and overwhelmed even to express the deep 
 sympathy he felt, and Dick was left alone, and sat 
 over his comfortless dinner in the great, gloomy 
 dining-room, trying to realise his new situation and
 
 38 TIP CAT. 
 
 to put away the bright future that only a couple of 
 hours before seemed so certainly his, and that now 
 was utterly impossible, it seemed incredible that he 
 was no longer the Dick Lucas, Christ Church, Ox- 
 ford, who was going to take his degree next year and 
 be called to the Bar the year after ; to whom society 
 was opening its doors and making itself as delight- 
 ful as it can to a young man of good looks, good 
 manners, and plenty of money ; that those luxurious 
 rooms at Oxford were no longer his, that the thorough- 
 bred hunter he had bought only the other day, and 
 only ridden once, must pass into other hands, and 
 that the few little bills that had seemed a mere flea 
 bite to confess to the liberal old grandfather, must 
 now be scrutinized and commented on by Aunt Maria 
 looking through Uncle Tom's eyes and speaking 
 with his tongue. What could he do ? Where could 
 he turn?" 
 
 "I am so young," he said, with that terrible self- 
 pity that saps the strength more than anything else. 
 "-And there are the two little girls." 
 
 But after that quiet half-hour in the nursery with 
 Sybil's gentle sleeping breath coming and going 
 against his cheek, and Letty's soft little fingers strok- 
 ing and fondling his, half the bitterness seemed gone.
 
 A SORE HEART. 39 
 
 " I am so young," he said, using the very same 
 words that had expressed all the pity and cruelty 
 of it, half an hour before, but now expressed the com- 
 fort. " I am so young and strong, there must be 
 work I can do, and there are the two little girls, so I 
 have something to work for."
 
 40 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 
 
 THERE was something hopeful and exhilarating 
 about the weather next morning, and the servants 
 thought some unexpected piece of good news must 
 have come to Dick during the night, when they heard 
 him whistling to himself over his dressing as light- 
 hearted as a lark. He even felt surprised at himself 
 when he looked in the glass that he was not haggard 
 and heavy-eyed, with black care sitting visibly on his 
 shoulders, touching his hair with grey, and drawing 
 lines round mouth and eyes. On the contrary he 
 looked uncommonly fresh and youthful, but what can 
 you not do when you are young and in good health, 
 and have had a perfectly good night, enlivened with 
 dreams of a capital run with the hounds, when the 
 February sky is blue even through London smoke 
 and there is a breath of spring and violets in the air
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 41 
 
 that drives away all memory of the fogs that curtained 
 you in only yesterday ? 
 
 Dick found a note on the breakfast table awaiting 
 him from Uncle Tom, asking him to come round that 
 morning to his house to talk over arrangements, as 
 he had a touch of gout in one foot and could not get 
 down to the bank that day. Dick shrewdly suspected 
 that Uncle Tom's gout was brought on by Aunt 
 Maria's anxiety to be present at any interview that 
 might take place, and by her fixed determination to 
 have a voice, and that a very ruling one, in any ar- 
 rangements that might be made, and he would much 
 rather have settled it. all with Uncle Tom alone in 
 his room at the bank, or in Mr. Murchison's office, 
 with the kind, old lawyer to put everything in its best 
 light. 
 
 But there was no help for it ; gout is a circumstance 
 to which we must all give way. So, breakfast being 
 over, Dick called the little girls to put on their things 
 and come with him. 
 
 Jenkins came into the hall to help him on with his 
 overcoat ; the old man was looking very dilapidated 
 after his last night's excess, and Dick, who guessed 
 the cause of part of his miserable looks, had taken 
 no notice of his sigh as he handed the coffee, or his
 
 42 TIP CAT. 
 
 sniff over the fried bacon ; but now there was some- 
 thing so appealing in the old man's dejected face 
 that Dick took hold of the unsteady hand that was 
 fumbling with his coat and shook it warmly. 
 
 " Cheer up, old friend," he said ; " there are better 
 days in store for us all yet, never fear ! " which sent 
 the old man shuffling off sobbing into the pantry, 
 hardly hearing Dick's concluding words, " but I don't 
 think whisky will bring them any the quicker." But I 
 think the kindness and the shake of the hand carried 
 the moral straighter to his heart than any words could 
 have done. 
 
 Letty and Sybil came running down stairs, pulling 
 on obstinate, new, black gloves in a violent and reck- 
 less manner in their haste to be off, and the three 
 set off very cheerfully, though the children experi- 
 enced the first pinch of their fallen fortunes when 
 Dick refused to buy them each a bunch of violets 
 from the basket that was offered temptingly at the 
 corner. They passed the cabstand too with firm 
 resolution, not to be shaken by the most insinuating 
 touching of hats or raising of whips from friendly 
 cabbies, and Dick felt as if he were already two shil- 
 lings the richer for the saved cab-hire. 
 
 There was plenty of time ; they were all good
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 43 
 
 walkers, and Dick's pride would not swallow an om- 
 nibus just at present poor, silly fellow ; though Letty 
 and Sybil grew silent towards the end cf the walk 
 and dragged back a good deal, stoutly denying, how- 
 ever, all the time that they were the least tired. 
 
 They found Uncle Tom established in the arm- 
 chair in the dining-room, with one of his feet swathed 
 in flannel and laid up on a chair, and Aunt Maria 
 mounting guard over the sufferer with her knitting 
 and with all the outward marks of a patient and long- 
 suffering wife, ready to attend to the slightest wish of 
 her irritable lord and master. 
 
 There was no doubt that Uncle Tom was thor- 
 oughly uncomfortable and ill at ease, but whether 
 this was from the gout or from what he had to say 
 to Dick, is not, I think, doubtful, even though it had 
 been persistently pointed out to him during the 
 watches of the night, that what he was going to pro- 
 pose was the best, and wisest, and most generous, 
 and, in fact, the only course to take. But the words 
 were not very sweet to Uncle Tom's lips and he 
 would gladly have turned over in his bed and gone 
 to sleep and left his wife and Dick to fight it out to- 
 gether; and the sound of Aunt Maria's knitting 
 needles, which had a little, vicious click peculiar to
 
 44 TIP CAT. 
 
 themselves, made him so nervous, that the groan he 
 gave vent to every now and then was by no means 
 unprovoked, though not by the twinges of gout to 
 which Dick attributed them, and which were really 
 of the very slightest description. 
 
 "Well, Dick," he said, after the preliminaries 
 about health and weather had been got through, " it 
 must have been a very great surprise to you the way 
 matters went yesterday. So it was to all eh, my 
 dear ? " appealing to his wife, who was, however, too 
 busy counting the stitches on one of her needles to 
 make any answer. So he had to turn back to Dick, 
 who replied that it certainly was a great surprise. 
 
 " It comes very hard on you, Dick ; as, of course, 
 it will make some difference in your prospects." 
 
 " Of course," said Dick. " All the difference in 
 the world." 
 
 He spoke so cheerfully, that Uncle Tom went on 
 more easily and with less humming and hawing. 
 " I'm glad to see you take it so well, for your aunt 
 and I have been saying how hard it comes on you to 
 give up Oxford, though we were never in favor of 
 your going there in the first instance." 
 
 A moment before, Dick would have said that he 
 had known from the very first that Oxford was now
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 45 
 
 quite out of the question, and that even if Uncle 
 Tom, with startling and unexpected generosity, had 
 offered to let him remain till he had taken his degree, 
 he would, on no account, have agreed to do so at his 
 expense, but still there must have been lurking some- 
 where undetected in his inmost heart a hope that 
 things might after all turn out differently, for, at 
 those words of Uncle Tom's, a dull pain awoke in his 
 heart that only the uprooting* of a hope can cause. 
 But he only laughed, and neither Uncle Tom nor 
 Aunt Maria loved him well enough to notice the 
 harshness of that laugh, and only Letty, who had 
 declined to go to the nursery with Sybil, glanced up 
 quickly at his face as if she heard something unusual. 
 But there was nothing to be read there, then or after- 
 wards, while Uncle Tom unfolded the plans he and 
 Aunt Maria had sketched out during the night, and 
 Dick only said, " To be sure," and " Of course," 
 and " Thank you, sir," with such quiet submission 
 that Aunt Maria looked sharply at him, more than 
 once, to see if there were any concealed sarcasm, in 
 the thanks for what, even she could not help feeling, 
 was not a very generous proposal. 
 
 Dick was to have a place in the bank with a salary 
 of ioo/. a year.
 
 46 TIP CAT. 
 
 Dick writhed a little as Aunt Maria pointed out 
 that it was out of pure kindness (she could not quite 
 bring out the word charity) that his uncle took him 
 on, as no extra clerk was wanted, and he would not 
 be of the slightest use for morlths, if at all, as young 
 men who had been brought up in idle, extravagant 
 habits very rarely become good men of business ; 
 but he only said he would do his best and was 
 awfully obliged ; and he tried not to think of the 
 clerks, on whom he had hitherto looked down, and 
 whom he had patronized in an easy, good-natured 
 way with a sublime, assured feeling of superiority 
 and who would now be his equals, if not his super- 
 iors. 
 
 Uncle Tom's spirits quite rose at the quiet and 
 satisfactory way in which he was getting through the 
 business, and Dick's attention wandered a little from 
 the arrangements for the sale of the furniture in Bed- 
 ford Place and the letting of the house, the details of 
 which were to be left to Mr. Murchison, though that 
 gentleman was in no favor with Aunt Maria at pres- 
 ent. As she told Dick, she could not have much 
 confidence in a man who expressed himself in such 
 an unprofessional and ungentlemanlike way as he 
 had done over the unsigned will ; but Uncle Tom
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 47 
 
 had declared that it would be impossible to put the 
 business into other hands, so paying the lawyer out 
 must be left till another day. 
 
 Dick would have to find lodgings for himself in 
 the neighborhood of Lucas's Bank. " And I ought 
 to caution you, Dick," said Aunt Maria, " that your 
 means will not allow of any extravagance." 
 
 " No, you will have to be careful," said Uncle 
 Tom, " for though there will be the 50^. a year from 
 
 your father's estate " 
 
 ' " But there are the little girls ! " said Dick, sud- 
 denly arousing to the fact that he had forgotten 
 Letty and Sybil, and grown selfish in his trouble ; 
 " there are the little girls." 
 
 And Uncle Tom also roused to the consciousness 
 that he was not out of the wood yet, and that per- 
 haps this might be the most difficult part of it. 
 
 " I was coming to them," he said. " Letty, run 
 away to the nursery." 
 
 But Letty only drew closer to Dick. 
 
 " Your aunt and I have thought a great deal 
 about the children, and though your aunt was 
 anxious " (here Uncle Tom gave a swallow as if the 
 words stuck in his throat) " to have them to bring up 
 with Ellen and Grace " (here Letty squeezed Dick's
 
 48 TIP CAT. 
 
 hand, in horror, very hard), " we felt there were a 
 good many objections, and that it was our duty to 
 consider first what would be for the good of our own 
 children." 
 
 " Certainly," agreed Dick. 
 
 " So your aunt has consented to give up her wish, 
 and she has got particulars of a school which we 
 think would be very suitable." 
 
 " Indeed," said Dick, with a reassuring pat to a 
 trembling little hand clinging to his arm. 
 
 " It seems an excellently managed establishment, 
 and the terms are very moderate." 
 
 "They are "rather young for school yet," said 
 Dick. 
 
 " Not at all, not at all," said Aunt Maria ; " they 
 have been shamefully spoiled, and no doubt are very 
 backward. Grace and Ellen at their age were well 
 advanced, and it is high time they should be learning 
 something, if they are to support themselves when 
 they grow up." 
 
 " What ? " said Dick. He could hardly believe 
 his ears, and he turned to Aunt Maria such a look 
 of amazement, and spoke so suddenly and sharply 
 that it quite startled her, and caused her to drop half 
 a dozen stitches off her needles ; and she went on
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 49 
 
 irritably with her eyes fixed on the knitting as she 
 picked up the stitches, which prevented her seeing 
 the storm signals that were rising in Dick's face, 
 compressed lips, rising color, and eyes that flashed 
 and clouded in a manner very unlike their usual kind 
 good-nature. But Uncle Tom saw them, and grew 
 so nervous that he actually hoisted his gouty foot 
 down off the chair and drummed on the ground with 
 it, which may have shown either the intensity of his 
 mental, or the slightness of his bodily sufferings. 
 
 " We must not close our eyes to the future," 
 Aunt Maria went on ; " of course the little girls will 
 have to earn their livings, as they are entirely unpro- 
 vided for, and it is quite our duty, whatever the cost 
 may be, to give them the means of doing so by a 
 thoroughly good education." 
 
 Dick said nothing ; he was looking at little Letty, 
 who, being tired with her walk, looked more delicate 
 and fragile and like Dresden china than ever, with 
 less rose-leaf color in her cheeks and a serious, 
 wistful look in her great, soft eyes as they turned 
 from Aunt Maria to Dick, trying to understand what 
 was said. 
 
 And just then Sybil came slipping in ; she had 
 quarrelled with Ellen and Grace in the nursery be-
 
 50 TIP CAT. 
 
 cause they had said that Dick was a beggar, and 
 would have to sweep a crossing, and, I am sorry to 
 say, she had slapped Ellen's face and pinched Grace's 
 arm, and, finding after this that the nursery was too 
 hot to hold her, had come to find protection with 
 Dick. 
 
 " The school is at Camberwell, and the present 
 opportunity is most favorable, as there are some 
 vacancies, and Miss Primmer is willing to take two 
 sisters at a reduction, and no doubt she might be 
 induced to lower her terms still more on the under- 
 standing that when they get older they shall assist 
 in the teaching and needlework. She has a good 
 many gentlemen's children among the pupils, as the 
 school is principally intended for the daughters of 
 the clergy and people in distressed circumstances. 
 They are all dressed alike, and the feeding is, I am 
 told, very good plain, of course, but plentiful." 
 
 Here at last she paused for Dick, to express his 
 satisfaction, and as he made no remark she looked 
 up. " Well ? " she said, " don't you think it will do 
 very well ? " 
 
 " No," Dick answered. His voice trembled a 
 little, but he was doing his best to answer quietly, 
 and to keep his temper. " No, I don't think it would
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 51 
 
 do for my sisters at all. I will not let them go to a 
 charity school." 
 
 I think Aunt Maria was taken by surprise ; he 
 had listened so quietly, and being, as I have said, 
 absorbed in her knitting, she had not seen from his 
 face that he was not taking it well, so perhaps this 
 was some slight excuse for her losing her temper, as 
 she did, completely. 
 
 (l His sisters, indeed ! Why were his sisters 
 better than any other penniless children ? Perhaps 
 he would find the money to put them to a first-class 
 school, or keep them at home, cockered up in the 
 ridiculous luxury they have been accustomed to. 
 Charity school ! forsooth ! And what was it but 
 charity in future that would put bread in their mouths 
 and clothes on their backs ? My word ! it was fine 
 to hear beggars talk ! " And so she ran on, work- 
 ing herself up into a fury that was only increased by 
 Uncle Tom's little attempts to soothe her " But, 
 my dear Maria, my love I am sure that Dick " 
 and by Dick's persistent silence, for he would not 
 forget that he was a gentleman, however hard he 
 found it to remember that she was a lady. 
 
 All the same he was very angry ; no doubt it was 
 very foolish of him, and it would have been better
 
 $2 TIP CAT. 
 
 for him and the little girls to keep on good terms 
 with their relations ; but young blood is hot, and he 
 could not endure the thought of his little, delicate, 
 dainty sisters having to scramble and shift for them- 
 selves at a rough-and-ready charity school. So, at the 
 first break in the torrent of words, he turned to his 
 uncle : " I was in too great a hurry, sir," he said, " to 
 accept the offer of a seat in your bank. I think on 
 consideration I must decline it. I mean to keep 
 my sisters with me, and must try and find a situation 
 that will not separate us." 
 
 "Wait a bit, Dick," entreated Uncle Tom, but 
 was snuffed out in a moment by his wife, and col- 
 lapsed groaning into his arm-chair. 
 
 " Oh ! don't press it on him, no doubt it's not nearly 
 good enough for him ; no doubt he can command 
 any situation he pleases, and it is only an insult to 
 offer him anything less than a partnership ! " 
 
 Dick was pretty well at the end of his patience by 
 this time, and Letty had begun to cry, and Sybil was 
 much inclined to follow suit, and he often wondered 
 afterwards how he managed to keep silence and 
 make his escape without letting his indignation boil 
 over into hasty words ; but somehow it was done, 
 and he found himself walking at a tremendous rate
 
 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 53 
 
 along one of the side paths in Regent's Park, quite 
 oblivious as to where he was going, or that he was 
 going so fast that Sybil and Letty had to run to keep 
 up with him, and were out of breath and tired.
 
 54 TIP CA T. 
 
 . CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN OPENING. 
 
 "I'VE been and gone and done it now," Dick said 
 an hour later, as he came into Mr. Murchison's 
 quiet office in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He said it with 
 "a laugh, but Mr. Murchison, pushing away the 
 papers in which he had been entirely engrossed, and 
 looking up at Dick's face, was not taken in by his 
 joking manner. 
 
 " Have you been and gone and had luncheon ? " 
 asked the old man in reply. 
 
 " Luncheon ? Yes no I breakfasted late," said 
 poor Dick, too full of his troubles to understand, as 
 Mr. Murchison did, that hunger might be an aggra- 
 vation of them. 
 
 " Well, perhaps you won't mind coming round 
 with me while I have mine ? I find I can't get along 
 without a square meal in the middle of the day," 
 said that cunning old sinner, who had only just come
 
 AN OPENING. 55 
 
 back ten minutes ago from his luncheon, which was 
 always of the most spare condition. 
 
 Dick could not well refuse to accompany him, nor 
 could he decline to take any part of the plentiful 
 meal that Mr. Murchison ordered for himself much 
 to the amazement of the waiter, who was used to the 
 old lawyer's small appetite and regular, precise 
 tastes. 
 
 So Dick took up his knife and fork just for polite- 
 ness' sake, and to amuse himself while his old friend 
 lunched, and he amused himself to so much purpose 
 that in twenty minutes he felt twice. the man he had 
 been, and much less inclined to look on the tragic 
 side of life ; and he gave Mr. Murchison a very dif- 
 ferent account of what had passed in the morning to 
 what he would have done before luncheon, and even 
 found excuses for Aunt Maria, and blamed and 
 laughed at himself for having been made so furious 
 by the scolding of an angry woman. 
 
 But not the softening effects of a good luncheon, 
 nor the wise counsels of the old lawyer, could bring 
 him to reconsider his determination, and to accept 
 the place offered him in the bank, or to allow his 
 aunt any voice in the disposal of the little girls. He 
 might, perhaps, though I rather doubt it, have been
 
 56 TIPCAT. 
 
 induced to eat humble pie for himself ; but when it 
 was a question of serving out that bitter portion to 
 Letty and Sybil, his whole soul rose in revolt. He 
 threw up his head, with his teeth set, and his nostrils 
 dilating, and clenched his hands, " for all the world," 
 said Mr. Murchison, " as if I were Mrs. Tom Lucas, 
 and you were going to knock me down." 
 
 In his inmost heart the old lawyer could not be 
 angry with the boy for his sensitive pride for his 
 little sisters, though he rated him soundly for being 
 headstrong and self-willed, and for quarrelling with 
 his bread and butter, feeling himself all the time that 
 if his bread had to be buttered by Mrs. Tom Lucas 
 he would rather go without even to starvation ; for 
 he had no love for that lady, and guessed that Dick 
 would have fared much better at his uncle's hands 
 if it had not been for her influence. 
 
 Lawyers see so much of the dark and dirty side of 
 human nature,. I often wonder how any of them can 
 keep any faith in goodness and truth and high-mind- 
 edness. 
 
 " And now," Dick said, " what am I to do ? " 
 
 They were back in Lincoln's Inn Fields by this 
 time, in Mr. Murchison's room such a quaint, curi- 
 ous room at the back of the house, so quiet that you
 
 AN OPENING. 57 
 
 could scarcely guess you were within a stone's throw 
 of the ceaseless traffic of Holborn, and lighted by a 
 skylight with colored panes introduced, surrounded 
 by handsome, heavy plaster mouldings and cornices 
 of the last century. The marble mantlepiece was 
 richly carved with fauns and naked boys carrying 
 bunches of grapes but I do not know why I should 
 mention all these details, except because they were 
 always associated in Dick's mind with the plans for 
 his future life which were debated on that occasion. 
 
 " What am I to do ? " 
 
 The old lawyer sat drumming reflectively on his 
 blotting-paper, and on a blue letter written in a crab- 
 bed, curious hand that lay upon it. He had it in 
 his heart to say, " I have no chick nor child of my 
 own, and a large balance at my banker's that grows 
 every year without giving me either pleasure or 
 profit, and I am willing to take your grandfather's 
 place to you and the little girls, and will do as much 
 as he was able and intended to do, or perhaps even 
 more, and make my old age happier and brighter 
 and fuller of interest than any other part of my life 
 has been." But it was utterly impossible to him to 
 say the words ; he had always been so prudent and 
 business-like and far-sighted that he could not do a
 
 $8 TIP CAT. 
 
 rash, open-handed act of generosity on the spur of 
 the moment, like any short-sighted, inconsiderate 
 mortal. Well, they say fools rush in where angels 
 fear to tread, but sometimes, it seems to me, the 
 fools get the best of it; and the old lawyer in his 
 lonely chambers in his solitary old age, even with the 
 consolation of that ever-increasing balance at his 
 banker's, was inclined, sometimes, to wish that he 
 had not been so wise. 
 
 " I'm afraid I'm not good for much," said Dick. 
 " Aunt Maria says I shall never make a good man 
 of business ; but I'll do my best. I write a pretty 
 good hand, you know, and I'm not such a duffer at 
 figures as some fellows. What have you got there ? " 
 
 For Mr. Murchison was unfolding the blue letter 
 before him with a doubtful, hesitating air, which 
 roused Dick's curiosity. 
 
 " It's a letter I received this morning, strangely 
 enough, from an old client of mine at Slowmill. 
 He's a( solicitor, and he writes to ask if I can send 
 him a clerk. He has a managing clerk, who has 
 been with him for years, and has all the business at 
 his fingers' ends ; but he wants another to take the 
 place of a nephew who has gone to the bad. He 
 wants a gentlemanly young fellow who writes a good
 
 AN OPENING. 59 
 
 hand. The fact of the matter is, he is bringing out 
 a big legal work, and it's more a sort of secretary 
 he wants than anything else. He has been at it 
 this twenty years, and I don't believe it's any nearer 
 completion than it was ten years ago. It needs a 
 lot of patience, I can tell you. He thinks of nothing 
 else, and he kept that young nephew of his so close 
 at it that he broke down and went to the bad got 
 into debt, forged his uncle's name, and made off. 
 No, Dick ; it wouldn't do for you," answering the 
 eager look in Dick's eyes before it was put into" 
 words. "It would wear you out, body and soul. 
 You don't know what a place Slowmill is, or what a 
 slave-driver old Burgess is when he's mounted on his 
 hobby." 
 
 " Do you think I should go to the bad like the 
 nephew ? " said Dick. " I don't feel as if I had 
 much go- left in me either way. Won't you speak a 
 word for me ? " he went on eagerly. " It would be 
 so fine to tell Uncle Tom that I have found a situa. 
 tion, and take the children right away. I don't much 
 mind what I do, or how little I get for it, as long as 
 I'm out of sight. I was thinking as I came along 
 that I shouldn't mind a groom's place ; for I do 
 know something about horses. By Jove ! if Letty
 
 60 TIP CAT. 
 
 and Sybil were only boys, I'd do it and we could live 
 over the stables, and be as jolly as sand-boys ; but, 
 of course, with the girls it wouldn't do. What does 
 the old beggar offer ? I beg his pardon Mr. Bur- 
 gess, didn't you call him ? " 
 
 " The salary is not much," said Mr. Murchison. 
 " In fact, I hardly think it worth your taking." 
 
 "'Beggars musn't be choosers,'" said Dick. "I 
 had that instilled into me this morning, and I'm not 
 likely to forget it. What's the figure ? " 
 
 " The salary to a competent person would be 8o/. 
 It's absurd," said Mr. Murchison, folding up the 
 letter and stowing it away in his pocket ; " not to be 
 thought of." 
 
 " Wait a bit," urged Dick. " It's not so bad, after 
 all only twenty pounds less than Uncle Tom offered 
 me, and thought he was doing the handsome with a 
 vengeance. What's twenty pounds more or less, if 
 you come to think of it ? " ( Experience had not 
 taught him that 2o/. more may make little difference, 
 but 2o/. less matters infinitely more.) " I call it un- 
 commonly good for a beginner. But do you think 
 I've a chance ? such a lot of fellows will be after it. 
 Look here, couldn't you write a line for me to take 
 down, and I'd interview the old fellow ? Oh, don't
 
 AN OPENING. 6 1 
 
 you be afraid ! I'll make him think me a second 
 Solomon. I'll roar as softly as any sucking dove. I 
 shouldn't have time to run down this afternoon," 
 consulting his watch ; " but I could go to-morrow 
 morning." 
 
 But Mr. Murchison still hesitated. " You have 
 not a notion what a dull place Slowmill is." 
 
 " So much the better. Even on 8o/. a year we 
 could not afford much society." 
 
 " There's not a gentleman but Burgess in the 
 place." 
 
 " Perhaps if there were they might not think much 
 of a lawyer's clerk. Look here, I don't expect to 
 find a bed of roses anywhere ; but I'd rather bear 
 the thorns out of sight. Now, sit down and write a 
 letter of recommendation for me ; make the best of a 
 bad job, old friend, and paint my portrait in the colors 
 you think would be most taking, and I'll give you a 
 specimen of my patience by not interrupting till it's 
 done." 
 
 And so Dick sat, with his hands dug deep down 
 into his trousers' pockets, and his eyes fixed on the 
 dull coals in the grate, that crumbled and died into 
 ashes as his bright hopes and ambitions had done ; 
 or on the dancing boys carved on the mantlepiece,
 
 62 TIP CAT. 
 
 who had grinned and capered before many a dull eye 
 and heavy, broken heart in the lawyer's office. 
 
 It was a long business, writing that letter, but at 
 last it was done, and Dick went off with it in his 
 pocket in capital spirits. In the evening he was up 
 in the nursery describing to the little girls the cot- 
 tage they would live in at Slowmill and the pleasures 
 of country life, busily counting his chickens before 
 they are hatched, when a ring at the bell and old 
 Jenkins, puffing and blowing up stairs, an- 
 nounced that Mr. Tom Lucas had come to see his 
 nephew. 
 
 He had had a hard time of it since the morning, 
 and I hardly know how he had managed to make his 
 escape and come to Bedford Place. His gouty foot 
 was still in a slipper, but there was no other sign of 
 the malady of the morning, and he got up quite 
 briskly from his chair when his nephew came into 
 the library and went forward to meet him. 
 
 " I can't stop a minute," he said ; " but I just 
 wanted to say that you must not be in a hurry or take 
 too seriously anything your aunt said this morning. 
 She has been very much upset, and she's a martyr to 
 her nerves positively a martyr Dick." 
 
 He might have added, " And so am I ; " but Dick
 
 AN OPENING. 63 
 
 mentally added it for him, only he altered the word 
 nerves into temper. 
 
 " When she has one of her nervous attacks she 
 really hardly knows what she's about. There's not 
 a kinder-hearted woman than your Aunt Maria in 
 London. 'Pon my word there's not, Dick." 
 
 There was something so deprecating and appeal- 
 ing in Uncle Tom's manner, that Dick, in the soft- 
 ness of his heart, would have liked to agree in his 
 opinion of Aunt Maria's virtues ; but he was still too 
 sore and smarting from the morning's castigation to 
 be anything but sincere, so he assured his uncle 
 that it was all right and no bones broken. 
 
 Uncle Tom gave a sigh of relief and turned to go. 
 "Then you'll come round to the bank to-morrow 
 morning, and we'll settle when you shall begin work ; 
 and as for the children, we need not be in any hurry 
 about them for the present." 
 
 Dick had thought what a fine thing it would be to 
 tell his uncle that he had another situation and was 
 quite independent of him and Aunt Maria ; but now 
 he felt quite a twinge of compunction at upsetting 
 the other's relief and satisfaction, more especially as 
 Uncle Tom was looking worn and tired, and limped 
 a little as he walked to the door.
 
 64 TIP CA T. 
 
 " Here, take my arm," he said, " and let me help 
 you out to the cab. You should not have come out, 
 sir; you will have made your foot worse again." 
 And when he had put him into the cab and told the 
 man where to drive, he fired off his parting shot 
 quickly. 
 
 " I'm afraid I can't come to the bank to-morrow, 
 for I've heard of a situation at Slowmill that I must 
 go and see after," 
 
 "Eh! What? What? What?" 
 
 " A situation as clerk, which seems likely to suit 
 me, and where I can take the little girls. Good 
 night, and thank you, sir." 
 
 That drive up to Regent's Park was not a pleasant 
 one to Uncle Tom, and, by the time he reached home, 
 he was so groaning and miserable that he was only 
 fit to hobble up to bed. 
 
 " And serve him right too ! " said Aunt Maria.
 
 THE LAST DA Y IN THE OLD HOME. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LAST DAY IN THE OLD HOME. 
 
 " HE won't get it," said Aunt Maria, " mark my 
 words, it was just a piece of flourish. Take my advice 
 and just let him alone for a bit till he learns that good 
 situations are not as plentiful as blackberries, and 
 we shall soon have him up here singing a very differ- 
 ent tune and glad to fall in with anything we may 
 propose. And meantime, of course, the servants 
 must be dismissed and the sale of the furniture put 
 in hand, and that will help to bring my young gentle- 
 man to his senses," 
 
 I do not think that Uncle Tom could have carried 
 out his wife's instructions so exactly . if it had not 
 been for a fortnight's attack of illness which happened 
 to him then, partly gout, but mostly nervous irritabil- 
 ity and vexation of spirit. Whatever the exact na- 
 ture of^his complaint may have been, he really was bond
 
 66 TIP CAT. 
 
 fide ill, and in the doctor's and Aunt Maria's hands, 
 and had to transact his business at home ; and dur- 
 ing one or two interviews which he had with Mr. 
 Murchison, that gentleman was so extremely taciturn 
 and morose that nothing was to be got out of him 
 except the very driest business arrangements, and he 
 was also apparently afflicted with deafness whenever 
 Aunt Maria was out of the room and Uncle Tom 
 ventured a question in a low voice about Dick and 
 the children. 
 
 Of course Uncle Tom knew that the sen-ants had 
 received their legacies and wages, and been dis- 
 charged, and that the house was already partly dis- 
 mantled after the first day's sale ; for Mrs. Tom had 
 commented severely on the wages that that idle stuck- 
 up nurse had received for doing nothing, and had 
 also bought in the dining-room carpet and a sofa, on 
 which she had looked with envy for some time past ; 
 but still he experienced a decided shock when, the 
 day he was able to go out, he drove to the bank by 
 a circuitous route which took him by Bedford Place. 
 
 A hearth rug was hanging from the balcony, display- 
 ing a bill of the sale, which also fluttered on either 
 side of the door, at which a group of greasy Jewish- 
 looking men stood, as if they were quite the masters
 
 THE LAST DA Y IN THE OLD HOME. 67 
 
 of the situation. The steps, which had been Mrs. 
 Treasure's pride and glory in their spotless whiteness, 
 were now dirty, and littered with straw and bits of 
 paper, and on the pavement, waiting to be carried off in 
 the van yawning to receive it, and with an aggressive- 
 ly clear "Lot 25" stuck on its arm, stood the big 
 leather arm-chair in which he had so often seen his 
 old father sitting. 
 
 The Jewish gentlemen fastened on Uncle Tom as 
 their natural prey, concluding him to be a simple- 
 minded bidder ; but he paid no attention to their 
 nasal civilities, but went in, and up the stairs, in 
 spite of his limping foot, to the nursery, as if he ex- 
 pected still to find the two little girls arranging the 
 Noah's Ark animals along the table, and turning 
 two smiling little faces towards him as he came in 
 as they had done the last time he was there, on the 
 day of the old man's death. 
 
 It was as desolate as an empty robin's nest in the 
 snow, and Uncle Tom turned and hurried away, 
 wondering why he had come, and what he expected 
 to find, and wishing he could forget Lot 94, " rock- 
 ing chair and high fire-guard," or Lot 97, " Noah's 
 Ark and doll's house," which came persistently be- 
 tween him and his writing all the day.
 
 68 TIP CAT. 
 
 Nor did he get much consolation from Mr. Mur- 
 chison, on whom he called in the afternoon, for the 
 lawyer was up to his eyes in work, and could only 
 spare a minute to tell Mr. Tom Lucas that his nephew 
 had left London the week before for Slowmill, where 
 he believed he had a good situation, and had taken 
 his sisters with him, and had desired him, Mr. 
 Murchison, to tell his uncle that he would write to 
 him very shortly. 
 
 "What has he done about his rooms at Oxford and 
 his bills there ? " 
 
 . " All settled, my dear sir ; but you'll excuse me, 
 I have an appointment at four, and you know what 
 business is, so I need not apologize." 
 
 " Good day to you," said Mr. Tom Lucas, wrath- 
 fully, with a firm determination to put his business 
 forthwith into other hands a determination which 
 Mr. Murchison read plainly in the other's sulky face 
 and voice, and answered by a mental snap of the 
 fingers and " Don't care if you do \ " 
 
 Those Oxford bills of Dick's had come in like a 
 hailstorm as soon as his present circumstances be- 
 came known, and Mr. Murchison and Dick had more 
 than one battle over them, as the lawyer maintained 
 that Mr. Tom Lucas ought clearly to pay them, and
 
 THE LAST DA Y IN THE OLD HOME 69 
 
 Dick as stoutly persisted that he ought not and should 
 not. Luckily Dick's birthday had been shortly be- 
 fore, and the old man had sent him a handsome 
 cheque ; and his rooms at Oxford were full of pretty 
 things. He had been a bit of a collector of bric-a- 
 brac and old china, and had a few pictures which 
 were worth something, though of course not half 
 what he originally gave for them ; but Dick had 
 plenty of friends at Oxford, and the sale was well 
 managed, and the dealers did not have it alt their 
 own way ; so when it was over there was enough 
 money to pay off all the bills and leave a little over 
 to start Dick's housekeeping at Slowmill. 
 
 I think the old lawyer's heart bled the most of the 
 two over the dispersion of all the pretty things that 
 the spoilt young favorite of fortune had gathered 
 round him. Dick kept a very brave face and laughed 
 at the old lawyer's groans and grunts, and quite per- 
 suaded the little girls and almost persuaded himself 
 that it was all a good piece of fun. 
 
 Letty and Sybil received a great deal of commisera- 
 tion from the servants during the few days that elapsed 
 between the funeral and their leaving Bedford Place. 
 They agreed that if nurse and Martha had always 
 been so kind in the matter of buttered toast for tea,
 
 70 TIP CAT. 
 
 and amiable on the subject of untidy nurseries and 
 dirty pinafores, they should have been a great deal 
 more sorry to say good-by to them. As for Mrs. 
 Treasure, they had always been very fond of her, but 
 they had never before enjoyed such complete freedom 
 to run in and out of the kitchen and explore into 
 cupboards and larder and scullery ; and they availed 
 themselves fully of it, which may, perhaps, have 
 accounted for the dirty pinafores to which nurse was 
 so unusually lenient. 
 
 There was not one of the servants who did not 
 protest, and some of them with tears in their eyes, 
 that if ever Mr. Dick came back to London and 
 needed their services, they would come to him even 
 if it were u from the Injes itself ; " and old Jenkins 
 begged and entreated to come with him to Skwmill, 
 leaving the matter of wages to be decided in the future. 
 For one and all of the servants felt convinced that 
 everything must come right in the future ; there could 
 not but "be a bright prospect for Dick, even though 
 the clouds might be thick just now overhead ; in the 
 midst of all his troubles there was a brightness in his 
 face and a confidence in his manner that might even 
 now have justified the brown-faced gipsy girls, who 
 had plagued him at Ascot and Henley with requests
 
 THE LAST DAY IN THE OLD HOME. 71 
 
 to tell his fortune, in saying, " Sure, it's a lucky face 
 you have, 'my pretty gentleman ! " 
 
 It was difficult to impress on Jenkins that not only 
 were wages out of the* question, but that even the 
 mere keep of an extra person was more than his very 
 limited income would allow ; and when at last it was 
 made plain to him, he sat looking at Dick quite 
 aghast for five minutes in silence, and then got up 
 and bolted out of the room without saying a word. 
 Dick thought he had gone to conceal his emotion, 
 and gave a little smile and a sigh to himself at the 
 queer contortions of the old man's working face. 
 
 It was the last evening in the dear old home, that 
 had often seemed dull and dingy to the young man, 
 but now was full of kindly memories and homelike 
 associations. His portmanteau was half packed, and 
 the little girls' box was already standing strapped in 
 the hall ; the rooms were partly dismantled, and the 
 dining-room furniture was already adorned with the 
 lot tickets in preparation for the sale. Some of the 
 servants had left already, and only two remained to 
 see the last of the young master and the little girls. 
 
 Mr. Murchison had been with Dick most of the 
 evening, and they had smoked a cigar together, 
 or rather Dick had smoked a short briar-wood pipe,
 
 72 TIP CAT. 
 
 for he had eschewed cigars, and suchlike extrava- 
 gances. 
 
 Mr. Murchison had been very jolly that evening, 
 and so had Dick ; they had told capital stories, and 
 had laughed till they had wondered at one another 
 and themselves, and had parted with a joke and a 
 smile, as if all the evening their hearts had not been 
 aching away, in most perfect sympathy. 
 
 Jenkins listened a minute or two at the library 
 door after Mr. Murchison had gone ; he had heard 
 the laughing, and been puzzled by it. " Gentlefolks 
 has queer ways," he said, as he shook his old head, 
 with its forty years' experience of those ways, gained 
 in his office of butler ; " it don't seem much of a 
 laughing matter to me." 
 
 But when he opened the door softly and caught 
 sight of Dick's head lying on his arms in an attitude 
 of deep despondency, he knew that hearts gentle or 
 simple are of the same nature all the world over, and 
 that Dick's heart was sinking down very low in spite 
 of his most strenuous efforts to keep it up. 
 
 Of course Dick grew very red when he found the 
 old man's compassionate eye fixed upon him, and he 
 pretended that he was only leaning over the table to 
 pick something up, and that he was sleepy and had
 
 THE LAST DA Y IN THE OLD HOME. 73 
 
 a bit of a cold. But Jenkins was not to be deceived, 
 and after all Dick found that it was rather a relief- 
 not to keep up that ghastly attempt at cheerfulness 
 any longer ; so he made the old man come and sit 
 down and have a talk, and it was then that Jenkins, 
 as I have said, made the proposal to accompany him 
 to Slowmill, and, on hearing Dick's answer beat a 
 precipitate retreat without a word of explanation. 
 He was not gone long, but returned rather gasping 
 and out of breath, and dusty, as if he had been bur- 
 rowing in the bowels of the earth, and glancing ner- 
 vously over his shoulder right and left, to make sure 
 that he was not observed, and then from inside his 
 coat he produced, done up in many wrappers, a 
 greasy, savings bank book, and, with a choking voice, 
 and tears standing in his eyes, pushed it into Dick's 
 hand, saying, "'Twere honestly come by, not a penny 
 as I hadn't a right to. I might have robbed the old 
 master every day of the week and no one been any 
 the wiser, but it wasn't my way, and I never touched 
 a penny but what was mine. Ever since the will 
 came out all wrong I've made up my mind as I'd 
 leave the money to you when I died ; but there ! I 
 never guessed things had got so bad with you, so 
 you'd best have it now, as it ain't no good waiting
 
 74 TIP CAT. 
 
 till I'm gone. Lor bless you ! I've a deal of life left 
 in me yet ; I'll take another place and save as much 
 again, maybe, before I'm laid on the shelf, and 'twere 
 all saved in your gran'pa's service, so, if you ain't 
 the best right to it, I don't know who has." 
 
 He was talking very fast, and running one sen- 
 tence into another, to keep down a gasp that was 
 rising in his throat, and he thrust his hands deep 
 into his pockets to hide how they were trembling, 
 and he interrupted himself in the very middle of a sen- 
 tence, and bid his young master " Good night " in a 
 would-be jocular way, and went out whistling a 
 cracked air in a minor key with his quivering old 
 lips. 
 
 It cost him a great deal to part with that precious 
 book, every entry in which he had by heart, and in 
 which every small sum of interest that had been 
 added had been gloated over with the keenest satis- 
 faction ; indeed it had almost taken the place of a 
 child to the solitary old man, and it was like sacri- 
 ficing an only son when he put the book into Dick's 
 hand and went away bereaved. 
 
 But it was only for a minute, for before he had 
 reached the pantry door Dick was after him, and the 
 old man's hands, with the precious book in them, were
 
 THE LAST DA Y IN THE OLD HOME. 75 
 
 being shaken in Dick's strong affectionate young 
 grasp, till the book was crumpled and the hands 
 tingling. 
 
 " Did you think I'd take it? " Dick said, in a very 
 husky, choked voice. " Good old friend, God bless 
 you ! And I can't thank you, or I shall make such 
 a confounded fool of myself, there'll be no end of 
 it." 
 
 And away he bolted up stairs three steps at a time 
 and locked himself into his room, leaving Jenkins 
 sobbing and stroking out the crumpled pages % of his 
 precious book, half disappointed, half relieved, and 
 not knowing how acts of self-sacrificing love are en- 
 tered in another account, and interest of untold 
 value added.
 
 76 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SLOWMILL. 
 
 LETTY and Sybil had from the first taken a very 
 hopeful view of the move to Slowmill ; at their age 
 every change has infinite possibilities of amusement 
 and when the change involved entire freedom from 
 the tyranny of nurse and Martha, and the constant 
 company of Dick, they felt that nothing was left to 
 be desired. They shed a few natural tears over the 
 widely-expanded nostrils of the rocking-horse, and 
 made their mouths very painty by diligently kissing 
 each of the Noah's Ark animals, even down to the 
 grasshoppers and ladybirds ; but when the cab was 
 at the door, and their box and Dick's portmanteau 
 safely on the top, they were in a fever to be off, and 
 could hardly spare a farewell look on the pleasant 
 nursery which had been their home nearly as long 
 as the}' could remember.
 
 SLOWMILL. 77 
 
 Dick even was young enough to be infected by 
 the children's good spirits, and Jenkins, standing 
 solitary on the door step, saw three such smiling 
 faces drive away in the cab that he gave a little win- 
 try smile himself, in spite of the tears in his eyes. 
 
 The journey, too, was delightful, the third-class 
 carriage having all the charm of novelty, and Mrs. 
 Treasure having provided such a store of cakes and 
 tarts and sandwiches, as allowed not only plenty for 
 themselves but enough to supply their fellow travellers 
 liberally, and even to offer some to the guard when 
 he came to clip the tickets. 
 
 They were a little tired by the time they reached 
 Slowmill, for, after the railway journey, came three 
 miles in a very jolting omnibus, in company with a 
 very stout old woman, who was precipitated first on 
 Letty and then on Sybil, till they were flattened both 
 in mind and body. 
 
 But when they arrived at Slowmill, and the omni- 
 bus stopped before Mr. Tysoe's, and Mr. Tysoe 
 came out himself in his white apron, and smiling 
 as only he was capable of, to lift the little girls 
 out, they forgot their flatness and fatigue in a 
 moment, and were full of eager delight and satisfac- 
 tion at their new quarters.
 
 7 TIP CA T. 
 
 Slowmill is built in the shape of a Y, and just at 
 the corner where the three roads meet is situated 
 the shop of Tysoe, grocer and tea-dealer as is an- 
 nounced over the door in large mottled china letters, 
 and the same legend is recorded in bits of peel on a 
 brown sugar ground in one of the windows. Ty- 
 soe's business has been established in Slowmill from 
 father to son for four generations, and though, of 
 late years, a new grocer had started in High Street 
 with plate glass windows and co-operative prices, 
 and the figure of a Chinaman with a noddirig head 
 in the window, Tysoe can afford to treat him with the 
 contempt he deserves, for he makes no way in the 
 world of Slowmill. 
 
 At one side of Tysoe's shop-front is a private door, 
 very tall and narrow, with a knocker so high up that 
 Letty and Sybil would require the assistance of an um- 
 brella to operate on it ; but there was no need of such 
 aid on their arrival, for the door stood open, and Mrs. 
 Tysoe's portly figure and chestnut wig more than 
 filled up the opening, as she stood hospitably to re- 
 ceive them, having to retire gracefully and carefully 
 backwards before any one else could enter the pas- 
 sage, and turn herself round in the shop before 
 conducting the lodgers up the very steep stairs that
 
 SLOWMILL. 79 
 
 led to the sitting-room over the shop that was des- 
 tined for their occupation. 
 
 The children were unfeignedly delighted with 
 everything ; with the paper on the walls of the pas- 
 sage and staircase, which represented a fox hunt and 
 a huntsman leaping a five-barred gate, which, when- 
 ever the paper joined, presented interesting combi- 
 nations of 'headless horses and mutilated dogs ; with 
 the beautifully cut yellow paper that protected the 
 gilt of the looking glass ; with the water lily under a 
 glass shade that stood on the rather rickety table in 
 the window ; with the portrait of Mrs. Tysoe in her 
 youth, in black satin and curls, which did not appear 
 to the little girls at all the same color as her present 
 coiffure ; with the amber glass candlesticks on the 
 mantlepiece, and with the hand-screens painted by 
 Miss Tysoe at boarding school, with flowers of pe- 
 culiar shape and unusual color. 
 
 The window commanded a fine view, as Mrs. Ty- 
 soe pointed out, of all that went on in the town, 
 which at present seemed to be very little, as a dog 
 stretched at full length in the sun in the very middle 
 of the street was the only living thing visible, and 
 conveyed the idea of the utter absence of any fear of 
 being run over by a passing vehicle. " But on mar.
 
 8o TIP CA T, 
 
 ket days," Mrs. Tysoe said "as is Fridays, it's sur- 
 prising what a deal of coming and going there be." 
 
 The tea things were laid on the round table in the 
 middle of the room, and Mrs. Tysoe left them to 
 hasten the appearance of tea, after showing them 
 their bedrooms, which lay at the back of the house 
 "over the cheese-room," as she told them, though 
 Dick thought she might have saved herself the trouble, 
 as the smell was quite sufficient to proclaim the fact. 
 
 The very smell was an additional attraction to the 
 little girls and they could not in the least understand 
 why Dick caught them both into his arms directly 
 Mrs. Tysoe was gone and held them tightly to him 
 and swallowed as if the smell of cheese were solid 
 and he could not get it down. It was such a regular 
 grown-up bedroom that the little girls were to have, with 
 a feather bed and drab moreen curtains bound with 
 pale green, and hooks behind the door to hang short 
 frocks at a giddy height above the floor, and a wash- 
 ing stand that did not condescend to short stature like 
 the one in the nursery at home, but raised the great 
 heavy jug to such a distance above some people's heads 
 as made it a serious question how it could ever be 
 lifted down by two, or even four, little trembling hands. 
 
 Dick unstrapped their box for them, and, lifting
 
 SLOWMILL. 8 1 
 
 the lid, looked rather forlornly at the closely packed 
 contents of mysterious little garments frills and 
 tucks and embroideries, and pink and blue ribbons 
 in which nurse's and Martha's skillful hands had ar- 
 rayed his little sisters, and turned them out such 
 dainty little ladies. Already even some of the trim- 
 ness and crispness had gone from their appearance. 
 Letty's face had a smear across it, and Sybil's hat was 
 crushed in on one side, but they did not at all share 
 in Dick's helpless dismay, but began at once dipping 
 and burrowing into the box, and seemed so bustling 
 and capable, that Dick left them to their own devices 
 to get ready for tea, and heard such screams of 
 laughter and running about and chattering that he 
 felt any pity or assistance was quite uncalled for. 
 
 They were almost too busy to come in to tea, but 
 when Dick threatened to begin pouring it out with- 
 out them they made their appearance, though their 
 toilettes were not quite complete, as one of Letty's 
 shoes had got lost in the melee, and Sybil's hair was 
 parted very much on one side. They had also for- 
 gotten their pinafores ; but this, I think, was inten- 
 tional as a sign of their emancipation from nursery 
 tyranny. 
 
 Letty was to pour out tea, but the big metal tea
 
 82 TIP CAT. 
 
 pot was so heavy that Dick had to come to the 
 rescue, as likewise he was obliged to do with the 
 large black-handled knives and forks which, under 
 the little girls' guidance, made magic passes at the 
 mutton chops, without producing any effect on those 
 substantial articles. 
 
 But it was all delightful the whiff of brown 
 sugar and bacon that pervaded everything ; the 
 tinkle of the little bell in the shop, when customers 
 came from time to time ; and the clacket of pattens 
 on the pavement outside all added to the charm. 
 They had once had a toy given them representing a 
 grocer's shop, with half-a-dozen little drawers con- 
 taining rice and coffee, etc., and a counter with a 
 very infirm pair of scales in which one coffee berry 
 far outweighed all the tiny weights, and a wooden 
 man with a red face and a white apron, on a stand 
 behind the counter. But the stock-in-trade was soon 
 eaten or otherwise disposed of, and nurse would not 
 replace it, and they found beads and slate pencils 
 were dull substitutes to make believe with. But 
 here they were brought in contact with a real shop, 
 and might, perhaps, be allowed sometimes to go be- 
 hind the counter and scoop tea and sugar out of 
 those inexhaustible stores, or poke the taster into
 
 SLOWMILL. 83 
 
 the very heart of a cheese, or pull down string from 
 that patent sort of arrangement above the counter. 
 There was no end to the possibilities that every whiff 
 from the shop suggested to their lively imaginations ; 
 and they chattered away so fast that Dick had no time 
 to feel melancholy or the children themselves to feel 
 tired till tea was over, and all three established on the 
 slippery horse-hair sofa, and Mrs. Tysoe was clear- 
 ing away tea and talking to Dick. Then silence fell 
 on the active little tongues, and first one head 
 pressed against Dick's arm and then the other, and 
 long lashes drooped over sleepy eyes, and Mrs. 
 Tysoe's voice grew indistinct and very like nurse's, 
 and sleep's magic hand wafted them in a second back 
 to the old night nursery, without the aid of the jolting 
 omnibus and third-class carriage ; and when they 
 heard some one say, " Let me put the little dears to 
 bed, sir, as .have had children of my own/' they did 
 not resent the indignity, as they might have done 
 an hour before, but let Mrs. Tysoe lead them off 
 and assist largely in their undressing, and at last, 
 lift them into the bed which seemed too high to be 
 scaled by such weary little bodies, and finally tuck 
 them up and give them each a loud, smacking 
 kiss, which did a great deal to take away the forlorn-
 
 84 TIP CAT. 
 
 ness which is apt to creep over any one when bed- 
 time comes in new quarters. 
 
 There was no one to do the same by Dick even 
 if it would have produced the same effect on him, so, 
 being left to his own devices, he went out to have a 
 look round and a pipe ; but the rain had come on 
 and the Slowmill people seemed to go to bed early, 
 and he came back feeling damp and depressed, and 
 inclined to pity himself and to think of life as if it 
 were one of those long straight roads to be found in 
 France, leading on dull and monotonous, with only 
 a heap of stones or a row of stiff poplars to break 
 the dreary straight lines, till it is lost in the distance, 
 instead of the pleasant up and down English road, 
 dipping into shady valleys or mounting sunny heath- 
 lands, crossing babbling streams, or winding through 
 parks and woods and meadows which most of our 
 lives resemble, thank God ; or as if it were one 
 bitter potion to be drained at a draught, instead of 
 being, as it is, so mercifully divided into little daily 
 doses, some of them bitter enough, no doubt, but 
 many of them sweet even in the saddest lot. 
 
 He found Mr. Tysoe putting up his shutters, and 
 that worthy man followed him upstairs under the 
 pretence of showing him a bit of news in th.e Slow-
 
 SLOWMILL. 85 
 
 mill Gazette, which was several days old in the Lon- 
 don papers, but really to have a little bit of gossip, 
 which Mr. Tysoe dearly loved. 
 
 It was quite impossible to feel heroic or depressed 
 in Joe Tysoe's presence, he was so sleek and smil- 
 ing and pleased with himself and all the world. There 
 is certainly something in the sale of cheese that 
 produces a good effect on the temper and manners. 
 Did you ever come across a surly, ill-tempered 
 cheesemonger ? I never did. They may be a trifle 
 deceitful and flattering sometimes, but never cross- 
 grained or sour. 
 
 He had a very pink complexion, and sandy hair 
 brushed up into a cockatoo tuft, and light blue, 
 twinkling, sympathetic eyes, and a mouth that watered 
 and smacked constantly, as if the taste of that last 
 prime Cheddar, or full-flavored Cheshire, lingered still 
 on his palate. He had seen trouble, too, in his time, 
 for his father had died when Joe was almost a boy, 
 and had left his mother and two sisters to his care, 
 and when his sisters had married he had taken to wife 
 one of the Miss Fullers at the " George," and she 
 had died after only two years of married bliss (that 
 is her funeral card with a weeping willow and a 
 broken column and a barrel-bodied urn on it, that is
 
 6 TIP CAT. 
 
 framed and hangs over the mantelpiece in the par- 
 lor). That happened years ago, but Joe Tysoe does 
 not seem inclined to give her a successor, though 
 there is a great deal of giggling among the farmers' 
 daughters who come into Slowmill on market days, 
 and more subdued flutter among the young ladies of 
 the congregation when Mr. Tysoe comes into chapel 
 on Sunday evenings, in his black frock-coat and blue 
 necktie. 
 
 " But," as he told Dick that first evening, " the 
 late Mrs. Tysoe were an angel, and that sensitive as 
 'twere quite surprising. There's a many good points 
 in the fair sex," said Mr. Tysoe, turning his head a 
 little on one side, as if he were contemplating the 
 beauties of a ripe Stilton, " but you don't often find 
 'em sensitive." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Dick, surprised that Mr. Tysoe 
 should have found the fair sex hard-hearted and im- 
 pervious to his attractions, " perhaps you don't do 
 them justice." 
 
 " Now the dear departed were a parable, that's 
 what she were, and that sensitive over cheese as I'd 
 trust her even afore myself ; and often's the time as 
 she's said, ' Joe,' ( says she, ' let them cheeses bide ' 
 or ' Take to him, Joe,' and she were always in the
 
 SLOWMILL. 87 
 
 right of it, and if that ain't being uncommon sensitive, 
 I'd like to know what is," said Mr. Tysoe with proud 
 conviction. " And when you shows me another fit 
 to hold a candle to her, I'll show you the second Mrs. 
 Tysoe."
 
 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 < 
 
 TIP CAT. 
 
 THERE was a great deal of dissent in Slowmill. 
 The Tysoes, as I said in the last chapter, went to 
 chapel, having been Wesleyans for several genera- 
 tions, and Mrs! Tysoe was a little vexed when she 
 found that her new lodger intended to go to church, 
 as she had pictured to herself conducting Dick and 
 the little girls to their seat in the chapel, under the 
 curious and admiring glances that would be cast at 
 them, and the slight, but touching allusion to be- 
 reavement that Mr. Parkins, the minister, would in- 
 troduce into his prayer at sight of the crape on the 
 children's hats. Perhaps she would look over a 
 hymn-book with Dick, and she would certainly hold 
 a hand of each little girl as they went out of chapel. 
 And so she felt quite disappointed when Dick de- 
 clared his intention of going to church and taking 
 Letty and Sybil with him ; and she was still further 
 annoyed to find that he had not upheld the honor
 
 TIP CA T. 89 
 
 and glory of her lodgings, but had sat in one of the 
 free seats among the snuffy old men from the alms- 
 houses, though half the pews in the church were 
 empty, and though Mr. Thoyts, the ironmonger, in- 
 vited him into his seat. 
 
 He also greatly shocked Mrs. Tysoe's prejudices 
 by taking the little girls for a walk on Sunday after- 
 noon. Dick was quite willing to fall in with all the 
 arrangements of the house for the observance of the 
 Sabbath, and made no complaint as to his bath re- 
 maining unemptied and his boots uncleaned, and he 
 cheerfully partook of a scrupulously cold dinner 
 without even a hot potato to relieve the frigidity of 
 the meal ; but he felt that a whole afternoon in the 
 little sitting-room, with the smell of dinner hanging 
 about and blending with the odors of the shop, and 
 with the sun pouring in at the window, was more 
 than he could stand. The American chair with the 
 crochet antimacassar on the back, which was the 
 only easy-chair in the room, was not conducive to 
 sleep, and the newspapers he had brought with him 
 had been carefully put away by Mrs. Tysoe, and a 
 few volumes of the Tract Magazines put in their 
 place, with Bunyan's Holy War to amuse the chil- 
 dren.
 
 90 TIP CAT. 
 
 So Dick told the little girls to put on their hats 
 and come out for a turn, and as they passed the door 
 of the parlor behind the shop, they ran the gauntlet 
 of Mrs. Tysoe's disapproving glances as she sat at 
 the table, very upright, in her Sunday cap, with a 
 large Bible open before her, and Joe opposite, in 
 his shirt-sleeves, with a red spotted handkerchief 
 over his head, which nodded backwards and forwards 
 in a spasmodic manner that threatened occasionally 
 to dislocate his neck. 
 
 Outside, the street looked a little more lively than 
 it had done the night before, as there were parties 
 of children hurrying to the various dissenting Sunday 
 schools, leaving a whiff of peppermint and hair-oil 
 as they passed, and clusters of hobbledehoys, with 
 shining faces and billycock hats, knocking their heels 
 against the edge of the pavement, waiting to be 
 taken in tow by the servant girls who came waggling 
 along in all the glories of their Sunday out, and with 
 whom they pair off and spend all the afternoon, walk- 
 ing out of step and hardly speaking a word, but ap- 
 parently to their mutual satisfaction. 
 
 Dick and the little girls soon left these interesting 
 couples and Slowmill itself behind them, and taking 
 the first turning from the main road that looked in-
 
 TIP CAT. 91 
 
 teresting, went along a winding road under great 
 elm trees, whose branches met and interlaced over- 
 head, which, in summer, must have cast a thick 
 shade, but now only made a delicate lace work against 
 the pale blue February sky, and let the sunlight 
 through in patches on the sandy road and on the 
 glossy ivy in the hedge. 
 
 This road brought them, after a time, to a pretty 
 lodge and a park gate, through which Letty and 
 Sybil were anxious to turn, but Dick persuaded them 
 to come further, and they were rewarded by coming 
 to a stile and a footpath that led them to a delight- 
 ful little wood, through which a stream ran, crossed 
 by a plank bridge. The stream was clear, and 
 showed the rich brown oak-leaves lying in layers at 
 the bottom, and the little girls found an interesting 
 family of frogs on the bank, who, they intuitively 
 understood, required assistance to reach the water ; 
 so Dick sat down on the plank to wait till this man- 
 oeuvre was accomplished, dropping pebbles slowly 
 into the stream, which caused a rippling eddy on the 
 smooth surface, a momentary disturbance on the oak 
 leaf carpet, and a little cloud of mud to rise in the 
 water, and then the pebble disappeared and the 
 water was clear again.
 
 92 TIP CAT. 
 
 That idle occupation of dropping pebbles, and a 
 shaft of sunlight that came through the trees on the 
 water, had combined to conjure up a vision of the 
 river at Commemoration time, and a picnic at Nune- 
 ham, and a girl's face that had smiled at him through 
 a pleasant sunny afternoon, and that had grown a 
 little pensive and thoughtful as the moon rose over 
 the beeches and turned the oars silver as they gently 
 dipped and rose. Kathie, she was called, Kathie 
 Dumbleton, and her cousin Jack had been Dick's 
 great chum. 
 
 Dick had had a good many flirtations in his time, 
 very innocent, harmless episodes, that had not cost 
 a wakeful night or a heartache to either of the parties 
 concerned, and his feeling for Kathie Dumbleton 
 had only been a shade or two more intense than for 
 half-a-dozen others, and most likely would soon have 
 been superseded by as many more but for the sud- 
 den change in his fortunes, which had taken him 
 clear out of the way of temptation of the kind, and 
 had accordingly deepened the last impression made 
 on his susceptible fancy, till it threatened to touch 
 his heart and become indelible. 
 
 Jack had taken his degree and gone out to India 
 the year before, having some good civil appointment,
 
 TIP CAT. 93 
 
 so he had heard nothing as yet of Dick's sudden 
 change of circumstances, and perhaps never might, 
 for Dick was a poor correspondent at the best of 
 times, and had not the heart now to write and say 
 how entirely all his prospects in life were altered. 
 
 " She will go to Commemoration," Dick told him- 
 self, " and some other fellow will row her up the 
 river, and put on her shawl, and all the rest of it, 
 confound him ! and she won't even remember the 
 existence of poor Dick Lucas, or if she does, and 
 the fellows tell her how I have come to grief, she 
 
 will say " 
 
 " I'll trouble you to get out of the road." 
 Dick was rudely awakened from his day-dream by 
 a rough, imperious voice, and became aware that a 
 tall man was standing close by, waiting to cross the 
 bridge. His appearance by no means justified the 
 commanding tone of his voice, for his shabby velve- 
 teen coat and gaiters looked like a gamekeeper's, 
 and his big hob-nailed shoes like a ploughboy's, and 
 the felt hat he wore was so battered and weather- 
 stained that a scarecrow might have been ashamed 
 of it. He had a long, untrimmed, grey moustache 
 and deep-set eyes of a light color unusual with such 
 a dark complexion, which gave a sort of wolfish ex-
 
 94 TIP CAT. 
 
 pression to his face as he stood looking down at 
 Dick, an expression which was strangely repeated in 
 the face of the big, rough, surly- looking sheep-dog at 
 his heels. 
 
 Dick scrambled to his feet to make way for him 
 with, " I beg your pardon, sir," and lifted his hat, 
 for in spite of the man's shabby clothes and his 
 rough, countrified accent, he recognized the new 
 comer as a gentleman. 
 
 " You'll be good enough to tell Mrs. Vivian that this 
 path is private." went on the tall man, " and not 
 part of the park." 
 
 " I shall be happy to take any message, but I have 
 not the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Vivian." 
 
 " Ain't you stopping at Tipton Grange ? " 
 
 " I never heard of such a place." 
 
 " Well, where on earth do you come from then ? " 
 
 Dick was beginning to get a little nettled at the 
 man's hectoring manner. "That," he said, "is my 
 business. If this is a private path, and I am tres- 
 passing, I can only say I did not know it and go 
 some other way. Sybil ! Letty ! " he called, " I'm 
 going back. Are you ready ? " 
 
 " Oh, Dick, wait a minute, there are four more 
 frogs with such poor, dry, dusty bodies."
 
 TIP CAT. 95 
 
 " Never mind the frogs. I can't wait." 
 
 "We won't be a minute, really we won't, but they 
 will go -hopping off quite the wrong way, and Sybil 
 don't like taking them up under their arms, they're 
 so awfully soft. And Dick, may we take one dar- 
 ling little one home with us ? It's the smallest little 
 frog, and we're afraid it's lost its mother, and we 
 could keep it in our bedroom." 
 
 Letty came climbing up the steep bank from the 
 stream as she spoke, with her face turned up so 
 bright and smiling and entreating, that Dick found 
 it a hard matter to say a decided no and tell her to 
 fetch Sybil at once and say good-by to the frogs. 
 
 " But you'll bring us back another day to see how 
 they're getting on ; there's one we've called Uncle 
 Tom because he's so like, and we think he's got the 
 gout, so we may come back another day soon, mayn't 
 we ? " 
 
 " No," said Dick, " we must find another place for 
 frogs, for this is private, and we're trespassing ?" 
 
 " You needn't be in such a hurry," growled the 
 man, who had been standing silently on the bridge 
 looking down at the child with those strange light 
 eyes of his. " If you're not visitors at the Grange 
 it don't matter. If I don't look sharply after them I
 
 96 TIP CAT. 
 
 shouldn't have a bit of peace or privacy. I've had 
 gushing young ladies sketching my old house, though 
 it's so ugly they couldn't make it worse even in those 
 things they call sketches ; and jackanapes of young 
 men shooting right into my poultry yard, and fishing 
 in my duck-pond the idiots ! And prying women 
 taking refuge from a thunderstorm and poking their 
 noses all over my place, and the old lady herself 
 sending to ask my advice and borrow my horses. I 
 flatter myself I've taught them better by this time, 
 but when I saw you there I thought madam was up 
 to some of her old tricks again." 
 
 "Well," said Dick, "I'm just going. Come, 
 Letty." For Letty was gravely regarding the old 
 man with a sort of fascinated curiosity, a scrutiny 
 that was returned by the deep-set eyes above, while 
 every now and then they turned a quick look at 
 Dick as if they were comparing the two faces and 
 seeking something in both. 
 
 " Didn't I say you needn't be in such a hurry ? 
 What did you say your name was? " 
 
 " I didn't say." 
 
 The man gave a jerk of irritation to his shoulders, 
 but just then a scream from Sybil interrupted the 
 conversation.
 
 TIP CAT. 97 
 
 " Oh, Dick ! Letty ! Dick ! there's a horrid great 
 ugly dog, and he's killed one of the frogs. Go 
 away ! Go away ! Oh Dick ! " 
 
 Letty and Dick both flew to the rescue, followed 
 by the man from whose side the sheep-dog had dis- 
 appeared a moment before unnoticed^ and they 
 found Sybil pushing away the creature's great grizzly 
 head with all her might, while he looked at her with 
 much the same curious look in his light eyes that his 
 master had given to Letty. 
 
 A whistle from his master called the dog away in 
 a second, and Sybil soon regained her composure, 
 and Dick pronounced the frog, though flattened, not 
 past all hope of recovery if put at once into the water 
 and left in perfect quiet ; and as in the meantime 
 the other frogs had hopped away, Letty and Sybil 
 agreed to go back without further delay. 
 
 But as they came out on Co the road across the 
 stile Letty fell back to pick some red and yellow ivy 
 leaves, and Dick, looking round, saw that the old 
 man had followed them and was speaking to her. 
 
 " Letty, Letty ! " he called, and she ran on, turn- 
 ing at the stile to nod and wave her hand to the 
 strange looking couple, master and dog, standing 
 watching her.
 
 98 TIP CAT. 
 
 " What did he say to you ? " 
 
 " He asked what my name was and I told him, and 
 he said it was a pretty name and that we might come 
 and see the frogs whenever we like, and that if we 
 go on through the wood we shall come to his house, 
 and he has some young ducks and lots of things to 
 show us. And then I asked what his name was, and 
 he said what do you think, Dick ? such a funny 
 name' Tip Cat.' "
 
 THE NE W LIFE. 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NEW LIFE. 
 
 MR. BURGESS'S house was a large, dull, red-brick 
 house in High Street, and his offices lay behind, 
 opening out of a little steep side-street, with a flour 
 mill and some stables just opposite. You had to go 
 up a narrow flight of wooden stairs to reach the 
 offices, which were on the first floor, and at the top 
 found yourself in the outer office, where the office 
 boy and Mr. Macintosh sat, and out of this led Mr. 
 Lupton's room and Mr. Burgess's, the latter of which 
 communicated with the house. 
 
 Mr. Lupton was the head clerk of whom Mr. 
 Murchison had spoken as managing most of the busi- 
 ness, and in his room Dick was to sit, except when 
 Mr. Burgess wanted him. 
 
 Dick did not find either Mr. Lupton or Mr.
 
 ioo TIP CAT. 
 
 
 
 Macintosh inclined to received him very warmly, or 
 to do much to put him in the way of his new work ; 
 for the latter had quite counted on taking Fred 
 Burgess's place, and felt himself aggrieved and 
 passed over when, as he said, "a chap^rom London 
 was put over his head who knew no more of business 
 than- a baby, and gave himself all the airs of a swell." 
 
 Mr. Lupton's disinclination to Dick was from a 
 different cause. Young Mr. Fred, as the nephew 
 was called in the office and in Slowmill generally, 
 had carried on a strong flirtation with Bessie Lupton, 
 the old clerk's pretty daughter, and wild and dis- 
 sipated as old Lupton knew the young man to be he 
 had encouraged the flirtation, and built on it a day 
 dream of the future when Mr. Fred would have suc- 
 ceeded his uncle in the business, and his Bessie 
 would be mistress of the red-brick house adjoining, 
 and Burgess and Lupton would be the name on the 
 door-plate. 
 
 With this end in view he had put up with much 
 from Mr. Fred, with a great deal of insolence and 
 personal rudeness, as well as with his unpunctuality 
 and want of attention to business, sometimes staying 
 on himself after hours to make up for the work the 
 young man had neglected, while Mr. Fred was play-
 
 THE. NEW LIFE. 
 
 ing billiards at the Swan, or away at coursing matches 
 with some of the fast young farmers in the neighbor- 
 hood, and more than once he had lent him some 
 money when he was in difficulties and had exhausted 
 his uncle's patience. But it had all led to nothing 
 but disappointment and vexation and loss ; Bessie 
 was broken-hearted, his money was gone, and Mr. 
 Burgess was inclined to lay "some of the blame on 
 him. You may be sure that after this Mr. Lupton 
 was not inclined to be indulgent to Dick, especially 
 as Dick was a very different style to Mr. Fred, and 
 did not show the slightest inclination to console 
 Bessie's broken heart which, I fancy, was quite open 
 to consolation. 
 
 Mr. Burgess was disposed to like Dick, Mr. 
 Murchison had spoken so strongly in his favor, and 
 he was so gentlemanly and respectful in his manner, 
 and so patient during the long hours of copying and 
 writing from dictation, over which his nephew had 
 fumed and fidgeted, and he was not always pulling 
 out his watch or whistling under his breath or draw- 
 ing on the blotting paper, as Fred had done ; and 
 the only fault to be found at all was his tendency 
 to look out of window when seven o'clock ap- 
 proached to see if his two little sisters had come to
 
 102 TIP CAT. 
 
 meet him, as they generally did ; and the only occa- 
 sion on which he suggested that it was time to leave 
 off, was one wet evening, when a large umbrella was 
 to be seen standing patiently at the corner very near 
 the ground and sent whirling round when any one 
 passed by and knocked against it. 
 
 " Of course," Mr. Burgess told himself, " it is a 
 case of new broom at present, and by the time he 
 gets to know every worthless young scamp in the 
 place it will be a very different matter." 
 
 But Dick did not seem inclined to make friends ; 
 he had made heaps at Oxford, and some might have 
 objected to him there, that he was not very particu- 
 lar. On the whole, I think it was more by good for- 
 tune than by discrimination that he had known a good 
 set, for any one who was good-natured and liked him, 
 he liked in return ; but now the change in his for- 
 tunes seemed to have made him more fastidious. 
 Certainly he had no fancy for the company in the 
 Swan the sporting doctor, Dr. Lee, and his partner 
 Mr. Shore, and the two managing clerks at the 
 brewery and two or three at the bank. They all called 
 themselves gentlemen, though Mr. Murchison said 
 there were no gentlemen in Slowmill, and Dick was in- 
 clined to think he was more correct in his estimate
 
 THE NE W LIFE. 103 
 
 than they were, and he responded so coolly to their ci- 
 vilities that they very soon set him. down as a stuck- 
 up prig, and left him to himself. 
 
 The Miss Shores, of whom there were five, who 
 spent most of their time in walking up and down 
 High Street, or looking out of window, and the Miss 
 Aliens, the mill-owner's daughters, tried their fasci- 
 nations on Dick in vain, and he ran the gauntlet of 
 the Shores' windows without turning a hair, and 
 even met the five in their most elaborate toilets, 
 walking abreast, with no more interest than if they 
 had been five charity children or five perambulators. 
 
 Something of Dick's story had crept out in Slow- 
 mill, and the young ladies of the town agreed that 
 it was quite romantic and like a novel, and that he 
 must be awfully interesting, and for the first few 
 days it was wonderful how many occasions for calling 
 at Mr. Tysoe's shop arose, or how often they were 
 passing Mr. Burgess's just when office hours were 
 over and Dick coming out. But he presented such 
 an impenetrable front of indifference that they soon 
 grew discouraged, and, as a fresh clerk appeared at 
 the bank the following week, of a more susceptible 
 nature than Dick, they gave the latter up as a bad 
 job, declaring that he was really too low, as he had
 
 104 TIPCAT. 
 
 been seen sitting in the parlor behind the shop, 
 smoking a pipe with the grocer, and he actually let 
 those little girls ride about in Tysoe's cart ! 
 
 They had not the intelligence to attack Dick 
 through his little sisters. I think kindness to them 
 would have covered a multitude of vulgarities, curled 
 fringes, waggling crinolettes, and country-town airs 
 and graces ; and the Tysoes won Dick's heart alto- 
 gether, for Mrs. Tysoe took the children at once into 
 her motherly care, while the little grocer seemed 
 never tired of their society, and found them endless 
 occupation and amusement. 
 
 The first morning, when Dick went off to the office 
 he left them with a very heavy heart. One day had 
 been enough to make him sick to death of that little 
 sitting-room with nothing to do, and he judged the 
 children's feelings by his own ; but he might have 
 spared the pity he expended on them, for when he 
 came in at dinner time, he found they had had a 
 most delightful morning, as busy as bees, with Mr. 
 Tysoe, unpacking a large case of goods that had 
 just arrived from Bristol, grinding coffee, nipping 
 white sugar into lumps, and turning cheeses, and they 
 besieged him with entreaties to let them go for a 
 drive in the afternoon with Mr. Tysoe.
 
 THE NEW LIFE. 105 
 
 Three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, 
 and Saturdays, Mr. Tysoe's cart drove round Slow- 
 mill and its neighborhood to deliver parcels and to 
 call for orders. It was a high spring cart with red 
 wheels, and it was drawn by a large rawboned gray 
 horse, with big hairy feet, and a patient, long-suffer- 
 ing temper, and having legs usually adorned with 
 knee-caps, either for the prevention or cure of broken 
 knees. On other occasions this horse did duty in 
 the omnibus to and from the station ; so Tysoe's 
 cart, even when most loaded with parcels, must have 
 seemed easy work, especially under Tysoe's gentle 
 driving, with long intervals of rest and a mouthful of 
 grass at the various houses and farms while Tysoe 
 indulged in gossip and mild flirtations with the in- 
 mates. 
 
 Dick felt rather a qualm when he was asked by 
 Letty and Sybil to give his consent to their going for 
 a drive, and Mrs. Tysoe herself hardly thought it 
 was the proper thing to do ; but the children were so 
 urgent, and the afternoon so bright, and there was 
 no one to take them for a walk, as Mrs. Tysoe had 
 to keep the shop while her son was absent, that Dick 
 could not find it in his heart to say no, and, later in 
 the afternoon, he caught a glimpse from the office
 
 106 TIP CAT. 
 
 window of the cart as it stopped to deliver a parcel 
 at Mr. Burgess's back door, with Letty holding the 
 reins and Sybil the whip, and Tysoe sitting between 
 beaming with good-nature. 
 
 Dick could not help wondering what Aunt Maria 
 would say if she could see them ; but they looked so 
 thoroughly pleased and delighted that he made up 
 his mind that he would not worry about it, and that 
 as long as they kept well and happy he would be 
 content for the present. 
 
 As to their being happy, there was no doubt about 
 that. Their life in Bedford Place when Dick was 
 away, had been, in spite of its comfort, very monoto- 
 nous, and everything at Slowmill was new and deeply 
 interesting to them, and they chattered away all tea- 
 time, and afterwards, with such bright eyes and 
 flushed cheeks that Dick thought they would be too 
 excited to sleep, till he looked into their room half 
 an hour after Mrs. Tysoe had carried them off, and 
 saw them fast asleep under the shade of the stuffy 
 moreen curtains. 
 
 They had so much to tell Dick of their drive, and 
 of the grey horse, which, from all accounts, was a 
 marvel of spirit and speed, and which Mr. Tysoe had 
 let them both drive. They had called at Tipton
 
 THE NEW LIFE. 107 
 
 Grange and several other gentlemen's houses, and 
 described them all entirely from a back-door point 
 of view. There was a very nice cook at one place 
 who was making tarts, and brought them each out 
 one ; and there was a parrot in one kitchen, and a 
 fierce dog in another, who broke his chain once, and 
 tried to bite Mr. Tysoe. The little girls evidently 
 thought that the servants were the real masters and 
 mistresses of the houses, and I dare say they were 
 not always very wide of the mark. 
 
 But the farms were the nicest places to go to, 
 cheese farms with great sweet-smelling dairies, with 
 milk-tins as bright, and shelves as white, and bricks 
 as red and damp as tins and shelves and bricks can 
 be, and as rubbing and scrubbing and washing can 
 make them, and long, cool cheese rooms with rows 
 of cheeses, some of them just out of the press, soft 
 and moist, and others more hardened characters. 
 
 The roads to these farms were through meadows 
 where large, white-faced, long-horned cows were feed- 
 ing, and there was generally a yard full of grunting 
 little pigs, or troops of gobbling turkeys, or something 
 equally interesting and instructive. At each farm 
 the children were hospitably welcomed, and refresh- 
 ment of one kind or another offered a drink of cool
 
 io8 TIP CAT. 
 
 whey, or a crusty bit of home-baked bread, hot from 
 the oven, or a waxy yellow apple that had stood all 
 the winter on the turned-up wine glasses on the 
 shelf in the best parlor. 
 
 " And who do you think we saw, Dick ? " Sybil 
 ended. " Dont tell him, Letty, let him guess. Some 
 one you know." 
 
 Dick's heart beat a little quicker. Could any one 
 he knew have turned up, a ghost out of the old life, 
 and have seen the children driving about in the 
 cart, and perhaps asked questions, and wondered 
 and pitied ? 
 
 " Who was it ? " he asked. " I'm bad at guessing." 
 " It begins with a T, doesn't it, Letty ? and he 
 
 had some one with him beginning with a What 
 
 does Kaiser begin with, Letty?" 
 
 " I give it up, Syb ; I'm bad at spelling." 
 
 " Why, Tip Cat to be sure, and Kaiser's his dog."
 
 WEEKLY BILLS. 109 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WEEKLY BILLS. 
 
 " WHO is this man, Tip Cat, the children talk of ? " 
 asked Dick, one evening. 
 
 It was that evening towards the end of the first 
 week, when some Argus eye had detected him smok- 
 ing a pipe with Joe Tysoe in the parlor behind the 
 shop. 
 
 " Well, he's a queer customer," said Mr. Tysoe ; 
 " and it's queer too your asking about him just now, 
 as he were in the shop not half an hour before you 
 come in from Burgess's, asking much the same about 
 you where you come from, how your name was 
 spelt, and goodness knows what all ; and when I 
 tells you as he ain't been in the town, to my know- 
 ledge, for nigh upon five years, you may be bound 
 he's up to something." 
 
 " I'm sure I'm much obliged to him," said Dick ;
 
 HO TIP CAT. 
 
 " but I don't see what business it is of his. Who 
 is he ? " 
 
 " Well of course, his name ain't really Tip Cat, 
 
 though every one calls him so, and I didn't know as 
 he was aware of it till he told little Miss as that were 
 his name. Squire Tipton Cathcart is his name by 
 rights, and all the Tipton property belongs to him, 
 though he chooses to let it all and live in a little 
 farm like a helmet. The old squire were a very dif- 
 ferent sort. It were before my time, but I've often 
 heard tell of him ; he had a pack of hounds, and 
 kep' the whole place alive with a house always full 
 of company, and plenty of goings on. He was 
 thrown in the hunting field and killed, when this 
 here Tip Cat, as they call him, was only a lad; so 
 the place was let till he come of age, and the property 
 were to be nursed up for him a bit, as the old squire 
 had run through a lot of money in his time. But 
 when he come of age he let the place again for seven 
 years, and when these was over there was a great 
 talk of his coming back, and folks said the good old 
 times of Slowmill was coming back along with him. 
 But all of a sudden we heard as the place was to be 
 let again. There were all sorts of stories afloat 
 about it ; some would have it as he'd lost his money
 
 WEEKL Y BILLS. 
 
 at cards, and some as his lawyer had made off with 
 
 it, and some as the young lady he wanted had jilted 
 
 him. I don't think no one knew the real rights of 
 
 it, but anyhow the Grange was let again, and, after 
 
 another few years, he come back and settled in the 
 
 little home farm, with not a soul but an old corporal 
 
 from his regiment, who does all the work about the 
 
 place, for he won't have a petticoat inside his doors 
 
 which favors the tale as he'd been served bad by 
 
 some young lady. He won't have nothing to do 
 
 with his neighbors ; he farms a little of his land, and 
 
 keeps a nice little bit of shooting, and is out with 
 
 the hounds most days. I calls there twice a week 
 
 with the groceries they use, which ain't much, but 
 
 it's not once in six months as I sees Tip Cat himself, 
 
 but only old Ridge, a surly old ruffian as ever 
 
 breathed ; but on Monday, as luck would have it, 
 
 just as we drives up to the gate up comes Tip Cat, 
 
 with his gun in his hand. I were just going to tell 
 
 the little Missies not to take no notice, as he don't 
 
 like to be looked at, and speaks rough now and then 
 
 if he's put out, when Miss Letty, she sings out, 
 
 ' How de do, Tip Cat ! ' says she, ' is this where you 
 
 live ? ' I was just took all of a heap, and I'd a good 
 
 mind to drive right off before he'd time to get in a
 
 112 TIP CAT. 
 
 rage ; but he took off his hat to the children as 
 grand as milord, and said, ' Yes,' says he, ' this is 
 my house. Are you come to see the ducks ? ' ' No, 
 not to-day,' said Miss Letty, very important, as if 
 she'd all the business in the world on her shoulders, 
 ' we're busy. We've a lot of places to call at, and 
 we've brought you. some mustard and black lead, 
 nothing nice, but we'll come another day if you like.' 
 I had to get out to take the parcels up to the door, 
 and old Ridge was looking out some bottles as he 
 wanted me to take back, so I was kep' a minute or 
 two, and all the time I could hear the children chat- 
 tering away to Tip Cat, and he answering back gruff, 
 but kind and friendly like, leaning on the wall and 
 looking at them as if he couldn't take his eyes off 
 them, or as if he was taking their photographs, and 
 his dog was sitting up on the wall close against him, 
 staring just every bit the same. I'd never had such a 
 near look at them before, and they are a queer-look- 
 ing couple as ever I set eyes on ; but it's plain hc've 
 took a fancy to the little Missies, and especially to 
 Miss Letty and no wonder ? " said Mr. Tysoe, 
 " bless their dear little hearts ! It was too wet for 
 the children to come along of me this afternoon, and 
 they was disappointed, but mother, she let 'em help
 
 If'EEA'L Y BILLS. 1 1 3 
 
 in the shop, weighing out quarters of tea against 
 Friday, and they was as good as gold, only they al- 
 ways wants to put a pinch too much, as don't answer 
 when you've got to make a profit. Tip Cat was 
 on the look out for them all the same, though he 
 couldn't have thought I'd have brought them out 
 raining cats and dogs ; and this evening he comes 
 tramping in, as I told you, and asks no end of ques- 
 tions, the main of them as I couldn't answer, and he 
 left word as how he'd be glad to see you and the 
 little ladies on Sunday if you liked to walk that way. 
 I didn't say nothing about it before the mother," Joe 
 Tysoe went on, lowering his voice as that lady's 
 substantial tread sounded on the staircase, " as 
 don't hold with visiting on the Sabbath. No 
 more don't I," added Joe, trying to assume a severe 
 and Puritanical expression ; " but I've heard tell as 
 there's a deal of that sort of thing in London, and if 
 you're used to a thing it don't seem so wrong." 
 
 Dick was inclined to resent Tip Cat's curiosity 
 about him and the children, and he was rather glad 
 when Letty and Sybil decided on going a different 
 way on Sunday afternoon, to a lane where they had 
 seen some early primroses. 
 
 OD Saturday afternoon Mr. Burgess asked Dick
 
 J 14 TIP CAT. 
 
 if he would* like to have his salary paid weekly or 
 quarterly. Dick had been wondering how this would 
 be all the week ; he had a little money in hand for 
 present use, but he had told Mrs. Tysoe that he 
 would like to settle the bill weekly, and though she 
 said it did not signify and it was all the same to her, 
 he thought she would prefer it. But this was only 
 to be done by receiving the salary weekly, and it 
 went so very much against the grain to do this that 
 when Mr. Burgess asked the question, Dick answered, 
 " Thank you, sir, quarterly if you please," and then 
 grew very red and hot and made several mistakes in 
 the writing he was doing from dictation, and at last 
 burst out, " I beg your pardon, sir, but if it's ajl the 
 same to you, I should prefer having my money weekly." 
 
 " Whichever you please, whichever you please ; 
 it makes no difference to me. I will tell Mr. Lupton 
 to let you have it weekly." 
 
 Dick had been hoping that Mr. Burgess himself 
 would make the payments, as Mr. Lupton took every 
 opportunity of being disagreeable to him, and now 
 took pains to let him know that his predecessor, Mr. 
 Fred, had received his money quarterly like a gentle- 
 man, as he, Mr. Lupton, himself did ; and Dick 
 went home fingering the coins in his waistcoat
 
 WEEKL Y BILLS. 1 1 5 
 
 pocket and feeling hot and humiliated, as if he had 
 sunk to the level of the laboring men who passed 
 him, slouching along with their wallets on their 
 shoulders, carrying their week's earnings to the missus 
 and turning in at the Swan to drink the first two- 
 gence out of it. " After all," he said to himself, 
 " there's no shame in being poor. It's the first 
 money I've earned, anyhow, and, by Jove ! I think 
 I've worked for it honestly." 
 
 " You'll let me have your bill, Mrs. Tysoe," he said 
 that night, " on Monday morning ? I should like to 
 pay regularly every week." 
 
 " I'll just get Joe to make it out then," she an- 
 swered, " he always balances his books a Saturday 
 night, and I've got it all down on the slate. Shall I 
 put in the washing along with the rest ? " 
 
 " Yes please ; and that reminds me, Mrs. Tysoe, 
 do you think you can find a better laundress ? I 
 can't wear the shirts she has sent home. I don't 
 know what on earth she's been doing to the fronts, 
 and as for the collars, they're so limp that I put on 
 half-a-dozen this morning before I found one I could 
 wear. I don't know how she's done the children's 
 things, but perhaps she's more used to that sort of 
 thing than shirts."
 
 Ii6 TIP CAT. 
 
 "Well," Mrs. Tysoe said, "she's a respectable, 
 honest body as ever lived, is Eliza Dawes, and a 
 widder woman and a long family and attends our 
 chapel reg'lar. A Christian woman ; but, in course, 
 if she don't give satisfaction we must try Mrs. Jones 
 as washes for Dr. Lee, and were laundry-maid for 
 years at the Grange. She ain't a woman as I likes, 
 but she've done a deal of washing for gentle-folks, 
 and knows how to charge I've heard tell." 
 
 " We musn't be extravagant, Mrs. Tysoe," said 
 Dick, "but it's no economy to pay very little for 
 washing shirts if you can't wear them when they're 
 done. If Mr. Tysoe has time to make out the ac- 
 count this evening will you let me have it ? I shall 
 not be going to bed just yet." 
 
 An hour later Mrs. Tysoe tapped at the door and 
 brought in the bill, startling Dick, who had the coins, 
 given him that afternoon by Mr. Lupton, spread be- 
 fore him on the table. He was looking at them with 
 a sort of curiosity and wonder as to whether this 
 money, earned by the sweat of his brow, could be of 
 the same metal and stamp as the coin of which he 
 had made so light in old days, it looked so different 
 to the sovereigns and half-sovereigns that had slipped
 
 WEEKL Y BILLS. 117 
 
 K 
 
 through his fingers so quickly and easily at Oxford 
 and in London. 
 
 " I don't think you'll have to complain," Mrs* 
 Tysoe said as she laid the folded paper down on the 
 table. " I've kep' all the items down, and I've al- 
 ways been counted a goodish manager." 
 
 " I'm sure I shall not," said Dick cheerfully ; 
 " you've made us awfully comfortable, and we can't 
 have been extravagant." 
 
 When Mrs. Tysoe had gone away, Dick opened 
 the bill and looked at the total, and then ran his 
 fingers quickly through his hair and caught up his 
 pen and added up -the column and then examined 
 the items. Yes, they were all of them correct, and 
 none of them, as far as he could tell, overcharged. 
 He could remember that neck of mutton and that 
 steak, and the apples, sugar, potatoes, milk, and all 
 the rest of it, and the addition was all right, and the 
 total a month ago he would have thought wonderfully 
 moderate for a. whole week's living for himself, let 
 alone the little girls ; but it was more than his week's 
 salary would pay, more than was comfortable to an 
 income of 8o/. a year. 
 
 He could pay it, for, as I have said, he had a 
 little money in hand from the sale of his Oxford be-
 
 il8 TIP CAT. 
 
 longings ; but he had put that by as a sort of reserve, 
 only to be drawn on in times of need, and, if possi- 
 ble, added to with a view to schooling for the child- 
 ren ; and the worst of it was he did not see how the 
 expenses were to be lessened another week. He 
 had been inclined to complain once or twice during 
 the week on the subject of the plainness and want of 
 variety in the fare more for the children's sake than 
 his own and he 'could not think what things they 
 could possibly do without, so as to bring the figure 
 down to that i/. IQJ. that he had been admiring as 
 his first earnings. 
 
 Anyhow, one thing was clear, that he could not 
 afford to be fastidious over his shirts and collars, 
 and it was quite a relief to him to get up and go 
 into his bedroom and carefully pick out the collars 
 he had rejected so scornfully that morning, and 
 flatten out their limp edges and put them back in his 
 drawer, to be worn when he had come to an end of 
 his better-washed linen. 
 
 Then he went back to that fruitless adding up in 
 the hope of reducing the amount ; but it was no 
 good, and at last he fetched his poor little reserve 
 store and made up the required sum, and, hear- 
 ing the Tysoes still about, he went down, feeling
 
 WEEKL Y BILLS. 1 1 9 
 
 that he should sleep better if the matter were off his 
 mind. 
 
 The Tysoes were having a late bit of supper with 
 some toasted cheese, which made the little parlor 
 smell like a mouse-trap, when Dick opened the door, 
 and Mr. Tysoe, with many apologies for taking such 
 a liberty, invited Dick to sit down and take a bit, 
 " as is a first-rate toaster and done to a turn." 
 
 But the bill had taken all Dick's appetite away, 
 so he declined with thanks, and said he was sorry to 
 disturb them, and put the bill and the little pile of 
 money on the table by the mustard-poL 
 
 " I have rather a head-ache," he said, " to-night ; 
 and that reminds me, Mrs. Tysoe, I think I should 
 be better without any beer at dinner and supper, 
 and I don't care for anything but bread and butter 
 for my breakfast." 
 
 " Perhaps you're a bit bilious,'' said Mrs. Tysoe ; 
 " and some folks as is that way inclined can't take 
 not even a egg with their breakfast were it ever so ; 
 but I'll get you a nice bloater for a change, and if 
 you finds the beer sits too heavy, I'd try just a leetle 
 drop of brandy and water, and I've some pills as I've 
 always kep' by me" as saved my poor 'usban' times 
 out of mind from yeller jaundice; and it's my firm
 
 120 TIP CAT. 
 
 conviction if he'd atook 'em in his last illness, he 
 might abeen here to this very day." 
 
 But Dick thought the bill had been enough of a 
 pill for one day, and that it must be a very patent 
 medicine to cure a pain in the pocket ; so he de- 
 clined Mrs. Tysoe's course of treatment, and left 
 them to finish their toasted cheese in peace.
 
 TIPTON FARM. \ 2 1 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TIPTON FARM. 
 
 IT was a beautiful Spring that year, and though 
 the country round Slowmill is not particularly pretty 
 or picturesque, it is a rare country for wild flowers, 
 and, to Sybil and Letty who had always been in Lon- 
 don at that time of the year, it was like fairyland as 
 they followed the bright footsteps of the Spring 
 through violets and primroses, and soft springing 
 grass and dainty opening leaves and grey velvet willow 
 buds, and thrushes' nests with warm, blue eggs, and 
 young lambs frisking on thick, young legs, and 
 fragile, pure anemones, and bluebells as blue as the 
 sky above, where the larks were singing, and dewy 
 cowslips, and the cuckoo's cheerful notes, till the 
 meadows burst into a blaze of golden buttercups to 
 welcome King Summer. 
 
 The little girls were quite happy. When Mr. 
 Tysoe was going out, he always took them in his 
 cart and set them down at some wood, or meadow,
 
 122 TIP CAT. 
 
 or lane where there were flowers or nests or lambs, 
 and picked them up on his return, and brought them 
 home. On the days when he was not driving, Mrs. 
 Tysoe used at first to take them out, but this the 
 children found dull, as she preferred to keep to the 
 pavements where she was likely to meet friends and 
 acquaintances, and she walked very slowly, and a 
 walk into the country did not at all fit in with her 
 ideas of enjoyment ; so, on one occasion, when Mrs. 
 Tysoe was indulging in a long gossip with a neigh- 
 bor, and the little girls had grown tired of the only 
 shop window within reach, which was an undertaker's, 
 they took the law into their own hands and walked 
 off independently .along the road past the church, 
 and made their way triumphantly to the very wood 
 where they had gone the first Sunday with Dick, and 
 where they had first met Tip Cat ; and here, as good 
 fortune would have it, they met Tip Cat again, and 
 he took them on to his house, Tipton Farm, and 
 regaled them with biscuits and milk, and showed 
 them the young ducks and the calves and a family of 
 pink-eyed, crafty ferrets ; and they passed altogether 
 a most delightful afternoon, while poor Mrs. Tysoe 
 was tearing about Slowmill, quite distracted at not 
 being able to find them.
 
 TIP TON FARM. 123 
 
 She was just on her way to Mr. Burgess's to break 
 the alarming news to Dick, and to ask if the duck-pond 
 by the churchyard had better be dragged, or the town 
 crier sent out to proclaim their loss, when the two 
 culprits appeared, having been conducted back as 
 far as the town by Corporal Ridge, having received 
 a cordial invitation from Tip Cat to come to Tipton 
 Farm as often as they pleased, and having made up 
 their minds to avail themselves of the invitation very 
 often. 
 
 They were very sorry when they found how 
 frightened and anxious Mrs. Tysoe had been, and 
 still more when Dick was told of what they had done, 
 and was vexed and worried about it. 
 
 " I thought I could trust you, Letty," he said, 
 " and that I need not feel uneasy when I am at the 
 office and now I shall always be thinking you are 
 wandering about the country by yourselves, and that 
 you may get lost or run over. And poor Mrs. Tysoe 
 is quite ill with running about to find you." 
 
 The two little girls were crying, you may be sure, 
 long before Dick came to the end of his very mild 
 scolding, and 'were on his knees, and clinging round 
 his neck sobbing in deepest contrition. 
 
 " Oh, Dick, we're so sorry, we'll never do such a
 
 124 TIP CAT. 
 
 naughty thing again if you'll only trust us ; and we 
 went very steady, indeed we did, Dick, and when we 
 heard a cart coming we climbed down quite into the 
 ditch, not to be run over, and I took hold of Sybil's 
 hand, and we walked quite slow and didn't run at all 
 but we won't never do it again, dear Dick, we 
 won't if you'll only forgive us this once." 
 
 Poor Dick, it was himself he could not forgive, that 
 he was not able to take better care of his little sisters, 
 could not keep them in the position to which they 
 were born, could not even keep down the weekly 
 bills within the limits of his income. Those weekly 
 bills were a perfect nightmare to poor Dick, and 
 Saturday night, a time to be dreaded all through the 
 week. Do what he would, the amount to be paid 
 was always a little over what he received, and every 
 week he had to draw from the small store which 
 dwindled very rapidly under those weekly calls. 
 
 He could not blame Mrs. Tysoe in any way, her 
 charges were certainly moderate and she was scrupu- 
 lously honest, and there was nothing approaching ex- 
 travagance that could be curtailed. Every week he 
 hoped that the next bill might be less, but it always 
 turned out that if they had saved in one item they 
 had spent more in proportion on another. He could
 
 TIP TON FARM. 125 
 
 not bear to stint or deny the children in the least, 
 and he felt miserable if they did not eat as much as 
 usual, or did not seem to like what was provided for' 
 them. 
 
 As for himself, he was so young and strong and 
 hearty, that even his unusually sedentary life and his 
 nervous anxiety to make two ends meet, could not 
 spoil his appetite, and he made such ravages on the 
 bread and butter as made him look very ruefully at 
 the loaf and pat when tea time was over. 
 
 Do what he would, he could not impress on Mrs. 
 Tysoe how desperately poor they were ; when he 
 said how necessary it was for them to be careful over 
 every penny they spent, he always said it with a smile, 
 and she fancied it was half a joke ; and the bill was 
 paid so regularly every Saturday night and no ob- 
 jection made to any of the charges, and when he left 
 off this or that little luxury it was always on the plea 
 that he would be better without it, and he was such 
 a gentleman, and so unsuspicious and generous ! She 
 had had many lodgers far better off than Dick who 
 had carped over and criticised every item in the bill 
 and had locked up every available article of food in 
 the cheffonier as is the way of certain wise people, 
 who do not seem to consider that if a lodging-house
 
 126 TIP CAT. 
 
 keeper is dishonest it is very easy to have two keys 
 to any cupboard door in the house. 
 
 So though Mrs. Tysoe managed her best for Dick 
 and the little girls, she did not realize how poor they 
 were, which made it all the harder for him in his at- 
 tempts to economise. 
 
 Letty and Sybil went down that evening with very 
 tearful eyes to beg Mrs. Tysoe's pardon, and finding 
 her quite recovered from her agitation and temporary 
 displeasure, and engaged in filling up the glass 
 bottles of sweets for the shop window, the peace 
 was very soon made, and they remained to help her 
 in her congenial occupation, while Dick upstairs 
 was fretting over that most fruitful source of worry 
 -ways and means. 
 
 When Dick came in to dinner next day, he found 
 a letter begun in large print, and Letty's fingers very 
 inky. She was, as Aunt Maria had said, very back- 
 ward, and this was the first letter she had ever at- 
 tempted. 
 
 " dear tip cat," it ran, " sibel and me is not com- 
 ing," and there a large blot seemed to have dis- 
 couraged the attempt. 
 
 " I told him, you know," Letty said, " that we'd 
 come and see him very often, for he gave us each a
 
 TIP TON FARM. 127 
 
 little yellow duck, and they're too small to leave their 
 mother, so I thought I ought to write and tell him we 
 couldn't ever come again unless you or Mr. Tysoe 
 could take us, and we should like the ducks called 
 Punch and Judy, and we don't want them to go into 
 the water till we come. Oh, Dick, I wish I could 
 write. Ellen and Grace could write, with nice little 
 curly tails to their g's, and dots to their i's." 
 
 " I wish you could, Letty. I'll teach you of an even- 
 ing," said the poor young fellow, with another sharp 
 sting of remorse for all his short-comings ; " and, if 
 you like, I'll write to Tip Cat for you when I come 
 home this evening." 
 
 But there was no need to write, for that afternoon, 
 when Letty and Sybil were out with Mr. Tysoe in the 
 cart, they met Tip Cat, so they were able to explain 
 the difficulties. 
 
 " Dick says we ain't to come by ourselves, and 
 Mrs. Tysoe can't walk so far because she's got corns, 
 and they're dreadful painful. Dick says he don't 
 mind bringing us sometimes on Sunday afternoon, 
 though he can't think why we want to come, though 
 we told him about the ducks, and he says he's quite 
 sure you'd rather we kept away. Would you, really, 
 Tip Cat ? "
 
 128 TIP CAT. 
 
 " He needn't trouble himself to come on Sunday 
 afternoons," was the gruff answer, " or any other 
 afternoon for the matter of that ; and if he'll take 
 the trouble to ask any one about here, they'll tell 
 him I'm not in the habit of asking people who I'd 
 rather kept away." 
 
 " But we can't come if he doesn't," said Sybil. 
 
 "Yes you can, if you want to. The corporal 
 comes into town every day to fetch my paper about 
 two, and I'll tell him to call in and see if you want 
 an escort, and we'll see you safe home when you've 
 had enough of it." 
 
 So the very next day, when Dick was coming out 
 after dinner, taking the short cut through the shop 
 as he was rather late, there he found Corporal Ridge 
 standing very stiff and upright, with his heels to- 
 gether, and he gave a military salute and told Dick 
 that the captain had sent him for the young ladies. 
 
 But Dick received no more invitations to Tipton 
 Farm, and saw nothing of Tip Cat, though the chil- 
 dren often went there twice or three times a week. 
 Now and then when they were late home, for, as the 
 evenings grew longer, Dick sometimes reached home 
 before them, he would walk out on the road to Tip- 
 ton Grange to meet them, and then he would catch
 
 TIPTON FARM. 129 
 
 a glimpse of the tall figure of the old man walking 
 between the little girls with his head bent down, 
 listening to their chatter as they held his hands, or 
 clung to his arm or his shabby velveteen coat but, 
 when Dick came in sight, and it was wonderful how 
 far away Letty and Sybil could see him, Tip Cat 
 would say good-by, and, turn back, while Kaiser would 
 follow the children till they were safe with Dick, as 
 if he felt his responsibility was not over till they 
 were in Dick's hands, and then would go bounding 
 off after his master. 
 
 " Tip Cat likes us both very much," Sybil would 
 say ; " but he likes Letty the best, because she is like 
 some one he knew ever so long ago, whose name was 
 Letty too. But the corporal likes me the best, so 
 that makes us equal."
 
 130 TIP CAT. 
 
 , CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WAYS AND MEANS. 
 
 WITH what different eyes people look at things 
 at different times ! or do the things themselves 
 change and alter and take other shapes and lines ? 
 Three months before, Dick had looked round the 
 little sitting-room at Mr., Tysoe's with disgust and 
 discontent, as being insufferably small, and mean, 
 and vulgar, and he had pitied the little girls, infi- 
 nitely more than they needed his pity, for being 
 reduced to this as their home ; and he had only re- 
 conciled himself to it with the idea that it was only 
 for a time, and that, by and by, when he saw where 
 he was, he would find other quarters more suited to 
 their position. 
 
 But now, as he looked round the room one Satur- 
 day night in June, ft looked to him quite pretty and 
 home-like and pleasant. It was a very hot night 
 and the window was wide open, and a great, white
 
 WA YS AND MEANS. 131 
 
 moon was looking calmly down on Slowmill, where 
 perfect quiet reigned in the streets, and where, one 
 by one, the lights were being extinguished in the bed- 
 room windows, for it was nearly twelve o'clock. 
 
 There was not a breath of air stirring to move 
 the window curtains or make Dick's candle flicker. 
 Letty and Sybil had been in bed for hours, and he 
 had been into their room and seen them asleep, with 
 Letty's arm stretched across Sybil in a protecting 
 fashion. He had heard the Tysoes go up to bed 
 Mrs. Tysoe very heavy-footed, with a grunt on each 
 step, and Joe brisk and active even after a long and 
 hot day's work. 
 
 Dick had been sitting for a long time with his 
 elbows on the table and his hands supporting his 
 head, and with a paper spread on the table in front 
 of him, before he raised his head and took a survey 
 of the room round him, partly in candle-light, partly 
 in moonlight. There was hardly any alteration in 
 the room ; it was just the same as it was three 
 months ago, when it had so disgusted him, except 
 that perhaps it was a little less stiff and more untidy ; 
 a great straggling bunch of honeysuckle in a large jar 
 had usurped the place of the wax water-lily in the 
 window. Letty's hat lay on one of the chairs, and
 
 132 TIP CAT. 
 
 a row of paper dolls adorned the sofa, and two long, 
 lustrous peacock's feathers were stuck in the frame 
 of the looking-glass and drooped gracefully acror 
 the little mirror. Otherwise it was just the same^ 
 and the portrait of Mrs. Tysoe ogled him with the 
 very wooden grin which had made him so angry at 
 first, that he had stuck a patch of sticking-plaster 
 over those senseless eyes, to prevent them following 
 him about, but to-night she seemed friendly and sym- 
 pathetic as he looked up at her. 
 
 I need hardly say that the paper over which Dick 
 sat so long that night was the weekly bill, and when 
 I add that the first item was, " Balance from last 
 account," it will explain the desperate look in poor 
 Dick's eyes as he looked up at the cold, composed 
 moon riding in the clear, indigo darkness above. 
 That little reserve fund of Dick's had been exhausted 
 some weeks ago, and since then he had been obliged 
 to pay Mrs. Tysoe only so much on account, and ask 
 her to carry forward the balance to next week's bill. 
 It was only a little, to be sure, and Mrs. Tysoe was 
 quite willing to do so, and even proposed to leave 
 the whole amount to another time ; but each week 
 the balance grew a little more, and this present week 
 one or two little extra expenses for boot-mending and
 
 WAYS AND MEANS. 133 
 
 such like necessary outlay had raised the sum so 
 alarmingly, that Dick felt that the matter must be 
 looked in the face and grappled with boldly. 
 
 There was no escaping the truth, that they could 
 not afford to live in their present style, and that al- 
 ready the serpent debt was beginning to wind its coils 
 round him. They must leave Mrs. Tysoe's, that 
 was very plain, and try and find humbler lodgings ; 
 but it was the little girls who would suffer most from 
 this, for they would lose Mrs. Tysoe's kindly care, 
 and have to shift and manage for themselves. 
 
 Had he any right to sacrifice his little sisters in 
 this way ? he asked himself. What was his duty to 
 them ? His whole soul had risen in revolt at the 
 idea of the rough school to which Aunt Maria had 
 proposed to send them, but, after all, would not 
 that have been better than what he could provide 
 for them ? He had a right to his own pride, and to 
 suffer for it if needs must ; but had he a right to 
 pride for them, and let them suffer for it ? Was it 
 not his duty to write to Uncle Tom and confess that 
 he was not man enough to keep his little sisters, 
 and that, after all, he must accept his charity 
 for them ? Oh ! what a fool he had been not to do 
 it at first when he could have made better terms for
 
 134 TIP CAT. 
 
 them, and been at hand to watch over them, instead 
 of coming as a suppliant to beg and entreat for the 
 very thing he had flung back indignantly in their 
 faces not four months ago. And what would his life 
 at Slowmill be worth without them, when they were 
 handed over to Aunt Maria's cold charity, and he 
 was alone, with no little figures waiting at the corner of 
 the street when office hours were over, no arms to 
 cling round his neck, and coax and pet him when he 
 was tired and dull, no tappings at his bedroom door 
 in the morning, and entrance of little half-clad 
 creatures wanting help in the matter of a button or 
 a tape when Mrs. Tysoe was busy ? He must not 
 think of that, but only of them, what would be best 
 and happiest. For that matter they could not be 
 better and happier than they are now. He went in 
 to have another look, and held the candle shaded 
 with his hand, lest the light should wake them. They 
 had never looked so well. Letty's cheeks had a 
 sweet rose flush on them, and Sybil's young arms 
 tossed above her head were round and dimpled. 
 Happy too ! They were as happy as the day was 
 long ; he had not seen a tear except on that one oc- 
 casion, when they had left Mrs. Tysoe in the lurch, 
 and gone off alone to Tip Cat's.
 
 WA YS AND MEANS. 135 
 
 If there had only been the slightest prospect of im- 
 provment in his income he would have tried to struggle 
 on for the present, but he was painfully conscious that 
 Mr. Lupton regarded him with great dissatisfaction, 
 and, not knowing the cause, he set it down to his 
 own stupidity and shortcomings ; and Mr. Burgess 
 had a grumbling tone about everything which poor 
 Dick thought was only called forth by himself, and 
 felt that, far from there being any probability of 
 a rise in his salary, he might at any time lose his 
 situation altogether. 
 
 Once he thought he would write to Mr. Murchison, 
 and once he even thought of poor old Jenkins and 
 his offered loan, and then, with a desperate effort, 
 he seized a pen and began " Dear Uncle Tom." 
 
 But just then the candle flickered in its socket 
 and went out, and the soft-toned bell from the church 
 struck two, echoing through the quiet town, bathed 
 in silver moonlight ; and Dick, with a strange feeling, 
 as if the bell had sounded a reprieve, threw down 
 the pen and closed the window and went off to bed 
 in the dark. 
 
 I have heard of people who have found direct help 
 and guidance in great perplexity by opening the 
 Bible at haphazard and reading the text they open
 
 136 TIP CAT. 
 
 at ; and to some the help comes through the words 
 of a passing stranger or the thoughtless chatter of a 
 baby ; and there is a poem describing how a child 
 singing as it went along the street unconsciously af- 
 fected the lives and actions of those who heard it. 
 So it was that some words of Sybil's threw a light on 
 Dick's uncertainty. 
 
 It was next morning when he was tying her neck- 
 tie to go to church that she said, " How nice it would 
 be if we could live in a cottage Quite out in the 
 country all the summer, Dick ! " 
 
 Why not ? There was all the summer before 
 them, and if they could find a clean cottage among 
 the fields the children would be able to live out 
 of doors in fine weather. He had only thought, in 
 leaving Mrs. Tysoe's of taking smaller, cheaper lodg- 
 ings in the town, and these would certainly be stuffy 
 and cramped, but a country cottage was different ; and 
 Dick turned the subject over and over in his mind, and 
 in the afternoon set off with the little girls to a cottage 
 about a mile from Slowmill which they had passed 
 once or twice in their walks, and which occurred to 
 his mind as a likely place. 
 
 You had to cross a meadow to get to it, and there 
 was a good bit of garden round it, and a rough piece
 
 WAYS AND MEANS. 137 
 
 of covert behind which would make a capital play- 
 ground for the children. 
 
 Letty and Sybil knew all about the people who 
 lived there, for they had been there several times 
 with Mr. Tysoe ; but they did not understand Dick's 
 sudden interest in old Ricketts, who worked at the 
 flour mill close to Mr. Burgess's, and in his rheumatic, 
 old wife, for Dick would not tell them his intentions, 
 in case they should come to nothing, and he should be 
 obliged to send the children back to London and Aunt 
 Maria. 
 
 The old man was standing leaning over the gate 
 into the road, smoking his pipe as they came up, 
 and he was quite willing to enter into conversation. 
 " It's a quiet place, sure enough, and there ain't 
 many folk pass along in the day ; but me and my 
 missis is quiet folk, so it suits well enough, and we've 
 a lived here these thirty years, so we're about used 
 to it. It's a good, big cottage most too big for me 
 and my missis now the young uns is all away ; and 
 times we've talked of moving, but the rent ain't more 
 nor a smaller one 'ud be, and we've a nice bit of 
 garden, so we wouldn't better ourselves. Lodgers ? 
 Well, we've took mowers nows and thens, but they're 
 mostly a rough lot, and the missis don't like their
 
 138 TIP CAT. 
 
 noise and drinking ways as is a good-living woman 
 though I says it." 
 
 The children had wandered off picking honey- 
 suckle in the hedges, so Dick accepted the old man's 
 invitation to come in and see the missis. It was the 
 plainest, little cottage kitchen, where the old woman 
 sat in the chimney corner, poking bits of stick into the 
 fire with her rheumatic hands, to try and rouse a 
 blaze under the big black kettle to make it boil for 
 tea. There was a dresser with a poor array of plates 
 and cups, and a patchwork curtain across the mantle- 
 piece, on which were ranged dim photographs on 
 glass and funeral cards in cheap frames. You might 
 see the same in dozens of cottages, but Dick noticed 
 that it possessed a virtue not always to be found, and 
 that was cleanliness. The old man opened a door 
 at the side and showed him with pride a little best 
 parlor, with a round table in the middle, with six 
 straight-backed wooden chairs standing round it, and 
 a dusky little looking-glass over the chimney-piece. 
 
 It was not very spacious, to be sure, but Dick was 
 not disposed to be critical, if he could only avoid 
 having to write to Uncle Tom, and send the little 
 girls away from him. But when he opened the sub- 
 ject with old Ricketts and his wife, he met with a de-
 
 WAYS AND MEANS. 139 
 
 cided refusal, when at last they understood what he 
 meant, for they could not imagine that a gentleman 
 like Dick could possibly want to come and live in a 
 cottage like that. 
 
 " It's no place for gentlefolks," they kept saying^ 
 " and the missis is that rheumatic as she couldn't 
 wait on you as you'll be used to." 
 
 But Dick persisted, in spite of their shaking 
 heads and discouraging answers, and made it all 
 appear so easy'and comfortable that, after a time, 
 the old couple agreed to think it over and not decide 
 in a hurry. 
 
 The bedrooms up stairs had uneven floors and 
 sloping ceilings, and did not boast much, furniture, 
 but they had the all-redeeming quality of cleanliness ; 
 and Mrs. Ricketts, opening an old worm-eaten chest, 
 showed a store of linen, sweet with lavender, of which 
 the mistress of many a better house might have been 
 proud ; and though there were no curtains to the 
 beds, nor carpets on the floors, Dick thought the bed- 
 rooms might compare favorably with Mrs. Tysoe's 
 which were apt to get stuffy and oppressive. 
 
 He was so very anxious to think it suitable, that 
 he made the very best of everything, and when the 
 old man rather doubtfully suggested two shillings and
 
 140 TIP CAT. 
 
 sixpence a week as a rent that might, perhaps, be 
 thought too exorbitant, Dick could have declared the 
 cottage the most elegant and luxurious accommodation 
 to be imagined ; and the little girls, coming in just 
 then with their hands full of honeysuckle and wild 
 roses, were quite surprised at Dick's restored cheer- 
 fulness, and at the friendly way in which he parted 
 from the old couple, who, on their part, looked dazed 
 and confused, and a little bit resentful, as if they 
 were being bustled along faster than they liked or 
 were accustomed to in the quiet jog-trot pace of their 
 everyday life.
 
 VISIT TO BRISTOL. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A VISIT TO BRISTOL. 
 
 " WOULD it be convenient, sir, to spare me for a 
 few hours this afternoon ? " 
 
 " Eh ? what, what ? " Mr. Burgess looked sharply 
 up at the young man. He happened to use the very 
 same words that Fred Burgess always employed to 
 signify to his uncle that he should not come back to 
 the office after lunch, and this form of words had 
 grown so familiar to the old man by constant repeti- 
 tion, that it quite startled him to hear them in the 
 mouth of his new clerk, who had worked on steadily 
 now for four months without a request for even half 
 an hour's holiday. But now it was beginning, the 
 old man told himself, the broom was losing its new- 
 ness, and there would soon be an end to punctuality 
 and attention to business. He had been too good- 
 natured in allowing it with Fred, and see what it had
 
 142 TIP. CAT. 
 
 led to ! So he would not let this youngster off so 
 easily. 
 
 " Would it be convenient, sir, to spare me for a 
 few hours this afternoon ? " 
 
 " What for ? important business, eh ? " 
 
 Dick flushed up to the roots of his hair. 
 
 " I want to go to Bristol, sir." 
 
 " Oh indeed ! that was what my delightful nephew 
 always used to say, but he generally added on impor- 
 tant business, which I usually ascertained, if I cared 
 to inquire, was to have his hair cut. Do you want 
 your hair cut ? " 
 
 " No, sir. If it is not convenient, I can go another 
 day." 
 
 Mr. Burgess felt a little bit ashamed of his bully- 
 ing manner, as Dick quietly took up his pen again 
 and prepared to resume his writing, and, being kind- 
 hearted he would have been sorry if he could have 
 seen how heart-sick the young fellow was, and how 
 this trifling opposition seemed to fret him beyond 
 endurance. 
 
 This visit to Bristol and its object was utterly re- 
 pugnant to him, and he had nerved himself up to it 
 only by the constant remembrance of the debt he 
 owed the Tysoes and the absolute necessity of get-
 
 A VISIT TO BRISTOL. 143 
 
 ting free of it, cost what it might, and of starting 
 clear in the future. 
 
 The night before he had turned out his little store 
 of valuables and had selected any that he thought had 
 any market value. A ring or two, some shirt-studs 
 and a scarf-pin that had belonged to his father. 
 There was a miniature of his fair, young mother, 
 wonderfully like Letty, who seemed to be looking up 
 at brother Dick from the circle of pearls with which 
 the portrait was surrounded, just as she looked up at 
 him morning and night when he took her face be- 
 tween his hands to kiss it. The pearls and gold 
 mounting must be worth something, but it went to 
 Dick's heart to rob the portrait of its fair setting, 
 and it seemed almost like sacrilege, as if he were de- 
 spoiling the dead. Poor, sweet, young mother that 
 he had hardly known ! His eyes were dim as he 
 pressed the miniature softly against his cheek and 
 whispered, " It is for your little girls, mother, your 
 little Letty and Sybil." 
 
 Then there was his watch which his grandfather 
 had given him the last year he was at school. What 
 a beauty it was ! He had hardly even yet entirely 
 got over the pride of bringing it out before strangers. 
 He had never seen one he liked half as well. He
 
 144 TIP CAT. 
 
 remembered the extreme delight it gave him when 
 he first went back to school with it, and how con- 
 stantly it was necessary to refer to it, and how the 
 first class boys came, for a joke, one after another to 
 ask him what time it was, much to his satisfaction, 
 till that great duffer Mabson burst out laughing, and 
 he saw it was all done for a lark, and how he was 
 ready to fight any one who cast a doubt on its perfect 
 veracity, and stoutly maintained that the church clock 
 must be slow because the time did not agree with his. 
 
 He found himself smiling over these recollections 
 of his schoolboy days, which seemed now such ages 
 ago ; but the smile only made the pain deeper when 
 he thought of parting with his watch. 
 
 And then the notion of going to a pawnbroker's ! 
 He had often passed the door of such a place and 
 seen poor, drunken, desperate creatures pass in, with 
 a furtive, shame-faced look round, to pledge their 
 children's clothes for more gin, and had imagined 
 the greasy counter and the frowsy, close smell and 
 the dirty Jewish face, whose sharp eyes know in a 
 second the value of the article offered, and whose 
 heart must be long dead to all pity and respect for 
 human nature. 
 
 There was no pawnbroker's that he knew of in
 
 A VISIT TO BRISTOL. 145 
 
 Slowmill, and, if there had been, he knew well enough 
 how many curious eyes would have watched him in, 
 and how many trumpet-tongues would have pro- 
 claimed his business on the housetops, but in Bristol 
 he would be lost in the crowd, and could do what he 
 pleased without any one being the wiser. 
 
 The opposition from Mr. Burgess was an unex- 
 pected difficulty, and, as he wrote from the old man's 
 dictation, he was trying to decide whether he would 
 go in spite of it, and risk the chance of losing his 
 situation, or if he would go by the late train and get 
 back to Slowmill as best he could. 
 
 But when one o'clock came and Mr. Burgess rose 
 to go to his lunch, he said, " You had better tell Mr. 
 Lupton that you are not coming back to-day, and I 
 hope business will not often call you away on Mon- 
 day afternoons just when we are so busy." 
 
 " Thank you, sir ; indeed it shall not occur 
 again." 
 
 " Till next time," said the old man to himself, as 
 he closed the door and went away to his solitary 
 luncheon, while Dick had to endure a volley of 
 grumbling from old Lupton, from whose irritation it 
 would seem as if this particular Monday were the 
 busiest day of all the year at Burgess's office.
 
 146 TIPCAT. 
 
 But Dick cut it as short as he could with civility, 
 and ran off, for there was not a moment to lose if he 
 meant to catch the train, for the omnibus was far too 
 expensive a luxury to be thought of, and he would 
 have to walk three miles to the station. So he only 
 ran in and told the little girls that he should not be 
 home till quite late, and they were to have tea, and 
 go to bed without him, and he took a bit of bread in 
 his pocket to eat on the way, and the little packet of 
 valuables he had looked out the evening before, and 
 went off, the children calling after him to bring them 
 back some chocolates. 
 
 " You know," Sybil explained to Mrs. Tysoe, " he 
 always used to bring us back chocolates when he 
 went anywhere ; really nice, don't you know, not like 
 what you have in the shop, but a different sort of 
 taste, not so much like soot. I'll give you one when 
 he comes back, and I'm -sure you'll like it." 
 
 Dick was just in time for the train, and reached 
 Bristol without any adventure except that, at one 
 station, a face well known to him at Oxford passed 
 the carriage, with all the old fuss and circumstance 
 that used to attend Dick himself in his prosperous 
 days when he travelled. The obsequious porters 
 carrying portmanteau, hat-box, coat, and umbrella,
 
 A VISIT TO BRISTOL. 147 
 
 the scent of a good cigar, the couple of dogs whose 
 comfort seemed of more importance than that of 
 all the rest of the passengers put together ; it had 
 all been second nature to Dick in old days, and he 
 drew back now in the corner of the carriage in deadly 
 fear of being recognized, as if it were likely that 
 young Prosperous should be travelling third class 
 or look for friends in that quarter. 
 
 When he reached Bristol it was not difficult to find 
 what he was seeking for ; the three dingy, smoke- 
 grimed golden balls soon caught his eye, but he did 
 not go into the first pawnbroker's that offered, but 
 went straying on, passing one because it looked too 
 smart, and another because it looked too low, and 
 aimlessly looking into many of the shop windows, 
 hardly noticing what his eyes were resting on, so full 
 was he of the painful memories that the sight of El- 
 liott of Balliol had called up in him. 
 
 So he stood for full ten minutes before a toyshop, 
 with vacant eyes fixed on waxen-faced beauties and 
 elaborate toys, and for all he knew it might just as 
 well have been the little undertaker's at Slowmill, of 
 which Letty and Sybil had grown so tired while they 
 were waiting for Mrs. Tysoe. 
 
 It was a great pity that he was not more conscious
 
 148 TIP CAT. 
 
 of the things before him, for Letty and Sybil, who 
 had not had the chance of a good look into a toy- 
 shop or a bazaar since they left London, would much 
 have enjoyed a detailed account of all the toys in 
 the window, and on another occasion Dick would 
 have remembered this, and laid up a store of interest- 
 ing information to carry to his little sisters. 
 
 More than one of the passers-by looked curiously 
 at the young man, standing apparently lost in serious 
 contemplation of those simpering dolls in the window, 
 and his face seemed quite to disturb a customer 
 within the shop, who after peering at him inquisitive- 
 ly between the Noah's Arks and doll's houses which 
 filled the back of the window, opened the door and 
 took a closer survey of him, unnoticed by Dick. 
 
 This customer was quite as remarkable as he 
 seemed to find Dick, indeed, there seemed something 
 more curious in a great, gaunt, old man with grey 
 moustaches and deep lines of thought and care about 
 his face, spending nearly an hour in minute inspec- 
 tion of wax dolls in a shop, than in a young man 
 standing a few minutes outside the window. 
 
 This customer had declined to have anything to 
 do with the smiling young women behind the counter, 
 who generally found themselves very acceptable,
 
 A VISIT TO BRISTOL. 149 
 
 especially to gentlemen customers ; and he had 
 demanded the presence of the master of the shop, 
 who was not nearly so used to attending to purchasers, 
 and had frequently to appeal as to prices and varieties 
 to the giggling young shop-women, who were much 
 amused at the business-like and minute review and 
 comparison of nearly every doll in the shop which 
 this strange old man went through before he selected 
 two dolls which satisfied his requirements. 
 
 He then proceeded to give orders for the dressing 
 of these two dolls, still giving his instructions to the 
 master of the shop, who, being young and unmarried, 
 was much confused at the scarcely repressed laughter 
 of the two girls, who were entirely ignored by the 
 old man, and who listened with intense amusement 
 to the blundering and unscientific* language in which 
 these two ignorant men-folk discussed the clothing 
 of the dolls. 
 
 The arrangements were nearly concluded when 
 Dick's face appeared at the window, and when Tip 
 Cat, for he it was, came out into the street, the young 
 man was just turning listlessly away. The two 
 men met face to face, but Dick's thoughts were too 
 far away just then from Slowmill to recognise any 
 one from there, even indeed, if he would have known
 
 15 TIP CAT. 
 
 Tip Cat again, having only seen him once, and that 
 four months ago. 
 
 Those strange light eyes of Tip Cat were very 
 observant and the dull, dejected look in Dick's face 
 struck him at a glance, and without any intention of 
 spying on him, or interfering with him in any way, 
 he turned when he had gone a few steps and followed 
 him, keeping him in sight through several streets, 
 along which he noticed that Dick went in an object- 
 less way, stopping now and then at a shop window, 
 and then wandering on again. Was he ill ? Had he 
 been drinking ? But just as this doubt entered his 
 head, Tip Cat saw Dick quicken his step and rouse 
 up and pull himself together, and give a look up at 
 the smoky sky overhead, and the next minute he 
 had turned into a shop at the corner of the street. 
 
 What shop was it ? Tip Cat wondered, but as he 
 came nearer recognised it by the three golden balls 
 over the door. " What does this mean ? " said the 
 old man to himself, as he turned away. " Nothing 
 good ! Poor little Letty ! "
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 
 
 WHEN Dick got back to Slowmill late that night, 
 he found Mrs. Tysoe sitting up for him with her 
 nightcap on, and rather a martyr-like aspect, and she 
 looked very narrowly at Dick as he came in, having 
 a general idea that coming in after twelve was usually 
 accompanied by unsteady gait and indistinct utter- 
 ance, and a tendency to set the house on fire, and it 
 was on this ground that she had declined Joe's offer 
 to sit up and let her go to bed, as she could not have 
 slept a wink with the fear of being burnt alive in her 
 bed. 
 
 But Dick only looked very tired and worn out, and 
 he was so penitent for having kept her up, that her 
 resolution to speak a few motherly words to the 
 young man on the error of his ways was quite for-
 
 152 TIP CAT. 
 
 gotten, and she was only anxious to get him a little 
 supper, as he was obliged to confess, on being ques- 
 tioned, that he had had nothing to eat since that bit 
 of bread he had taken from the dinner-table in the 
 middle of the day. 
 
 To save trouble she spread the supper in the back 
 parlour, and Dick, when he came down to it, brought 
 down the bill and the little pile of money to pay it. 
 
 " Bless my heart ! you needn't have troubled," Mrs. 
 Tysoe said, " at this time of night too. I thought 
 you'd alet it bide till next week, so when you didn't 
 settle it Saturday night, I thought 'twould just be" 
 carried forward to next account." 
 
 " It won't do for me to get into debt, Mrs. Tysoe ; 
 it's as much as I can do to pay a week's bill, so I'm 
 sure I couldn't a fortnight's." 
 
 Mrs. Tysoe laughed ; she always laughed at any 
 reference to Dick's great poverty, as if it were an 
 amusing fiction he liked to keep up, in which it was 
 necessary to humor him. But she did not laugh at 
 Dick's next remark, but sat in stony silence, only 
 the quivering of the frills of her nightcap revealing 
 the agitation of her feelings. 
 
 " I want to thank you," Dick said, " for all your 
 kindness to me and the little girls, and to tell you
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 153 
 
 that, much to my regret, I must give you notice to 
 leave at the end of the week. Saturday is the right 
 day for giving notice, I know, so we shall not leave 
 till Saturday, week ; but I thought I had better tell 
 you as soon as my plans were settled." 
 
 " Then you're going back to London, and have 
 come back into all your property ? There ! if I 
 didn't always say you would. It was only this very 
 blessed day as I was saying to Mrs. Jones as no one 
 couldn't look at you and think as you'd be long at 
 Burgess's, as 'twere for all the world like putting a 
 silk patch on a cotton gown. Dear ! dear ! dear ! and 
 all you've asaid about being so poor, when I warrant 
 you knowed all along how it would all come right. 
 And those pretty little dears, so contented and happy, 
 and as pleased to ride with Joe in his cart as if he'd 
 been a coach and six ! " 
 
 Mrs. Tysoe was getting quite tearful and hysterical, 
 and her words came so rapidly that Dick could not 
 edge in a word for some minutes to enlighten her as 
 to the very different cause of their leaving. 
 
 " But I'm not going back to London, Mrs. Tysoe, 
 and I never shall come into any property ; and I 
 think Mr. Lupton would tell you I'm a very poor 
 patch indeed at Mr. Burgess's, and I may think my-
 
 154 TIP CAT. 
 
 self lucky if I don't get the sack. No ; the truth of 
 it is, we can't afford to stop here, and I must try and 
 find cheaper rooms. No, you must not offer to lower 
 the rent, for you do not ask a penny too much ; only 
 you must find lodgers better off than we are and who 
 won't give you so much trouble." 
 
 There was a strange convulsion of feeling to be 
 read in Mrs. Tysoe's face just then, if Dick had not 
 been too weary and down-hearted to read it. One 
 moment she was inclined to bridle up and take of- 
 fence, and talk of not giving satisfaction ; the next 
 to dissolve into tears and beg them to stop at any 
 terms, as she was " as fond of them two children as 
 her own flesh and blood." One moment the darkest 
 suspicions of Dick crossed her mind, and the next 
 the most pitiful, motherly feeling for him and the 
 little girls. Now she thought only of the dulness she 
 should feel without Letty and Sybil, and now, of the 
 brother of the dissenting minister, who wanted apart- 
 ments, and who was a quiet Christian man and a 
 traveller for the wholesale oil and colourman with 
 whom Joe dealt, so that he was likely to be a very 
 advantageous lodger. 
 
 " And may I ask," she said, at last, stiffly, " where 
 you'll find cheaper rooms, where you'll get as well
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 155 
 
 done by as you've done here ? though I say it as 
 shouldn't." 
 
 " Nowhere, and I don't expect it. You've spoilt 
 us, Mrs. Tysoe, and I don't know how Letty and 
 Sybil will get on without you." 
 
 His voice was a little husky as he spoke, and Mrs. 
 Tysoe's heart softened at the sound. 
 
 " Poor little dears ! " she went on, " they're not 
 of the sort to rough it. Miss Letty ain't strong, the 
 leastest thing upsets her, and Miss Sybil have a 
 nasty wheezing at her chest if she ketches a bit of a 
 cold, as wants seeing to keerful if you wants to rear 
 her. You say as your ma did'nt die in consumption, 
 but you marks my words as some of your folks did 
 some time or other, and it's sure and certain to come 
 out in them little sisters of yours if they're not well 
 looked to." 
 
 Poor Dick did not find these gloomy forebodings 
 very reassuring, but he tried to take a cheerful view 
 of the matter. " At any rate they are both very well 
 now." 
 
 Mrs. Tysoe shook her head ominously, and sighed. 
 " There's nowhere in Slowmill as I can think of as 
 is' fit for you. There's Mrs. Jolly's, but she's a deal 
 too fond of a glass, and them's not the sort to have
 
 156 TIP CAT. 
 
 the care of children ; and Mrs. Laws is that dirty, as 
 I couldn't eat a mossel in her house were it ever so. 
 But there ! perhaps you've found what you want, and 
 don't need any advice from me." 
 
 " Indeed I do, Mrs. Tysoe. If you don't stand 
 our friend, I don't know who will." And then Dick 
 unfolded his plan of the Ricketts's cottage. 
 
 Mrs. Tysoe was, as I have said, no great walker, 
 so, though she had lived all her life in Slowmill, and 
 that life had extended to sixty-five years, she knew 
 very little of the neighborhood, and Dick was rather 
 relieved to find that she did not quite know which 
 was the Ricketts's cottage, and that his description, 
 quite unintentionally, conveyed to her mind an idea 
 very superior to the humble reality. 
 
 She had seen old Ricketts ; he had dealt with 
 them for years, which was greatly in his favor, and 
 she had heard tell that his Missus was a decent, clean 
 sort of a body. 
 
 " But she ain't never been used to gentlefolks' 
 ways ; and who's to look after the children's hair, 
 I'd like to know, and brush it and do it out as have 
 took me sometimes half an hour between the 
 two ? " 
 
 Dick shook his head wearily. He knew better
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 157 
 
 even than Mrs. Tysoe did, of how little hairdressing 
 or anything else, Mrs. Rickett's rheumatic hands 
 were capable. 
 
 " We must make the best of it," he said, " and I 
 must do lady's-maid now and then. We can but try 
 it for a week or two, and see how we get on. But 
 I must not keep you up any longer, or you will be 
 only too glad to get rid of us." 
 
 " Well, it must be getting late," said Mrs. Tysoe : 
 " but Joe he've taken the clock up to his room, as 
 his watch have stopped, so I don't rightly know the 
 time." 
 
 Dick's hand went involuntarily to his waistcoat 
 pocket. 
 
 " Bless and save us ! Where's your watch ? " asked 
 Mrs. Tysoe, as his hand fell and his face changed 
 color. 
 
 " I left it in Bristol," stammered Dick, " to to 
 be mended." Poor Dick, it was the first time he 
 had missed the watch, and with that first impulse of 
 a wounded creature to hide its hurt, he had told a 
 falsehood about it and such a poor little pitiful un- 
 truth that deceived no one, for Mrs. Tysoe stood 
 looking at him with consternation and horror. 
 
 " Why, you've never been and "
 
 158 TIPCAT. 
 
 " Good-night," he said, irritably. " I'm tired to 
 death, and so I expect are you ; " and he left her, 
 looking after him and murmuring, " He's been and 
 Who'd 'a'thought ? Poor lad ! poor lad ! He 
 might a'told me first, and I'll warrant as he didn't 
 get half as he ought for it ! And 'twere such a 
 beauty ! And 'twould, a'been nice for Joe. Dear ! 
 dear ! 'tis a terrible pity ! " 
 
 Neither Mrs. Tysoe nor Dick slept much that 
 night, and Dick looked so dilapidated when he 
 turned up at the office that Mr. Burgess was corn- 
 firmed in his opinion, that the day before had been 
 the first step in a course of dissipation ; and, as he 
 passed through the outer office, Mr. Macintosh pre- 
 tended to take a long draught from a roll of paper 
 on his desk, and then pointed over his shoulder to 
 Dick's retiring figure, and winked at the office boy, 
 who went into an irrepressible burst of merriment at 
 this refined and elegant joke. 
 
 The morning's work had never seemed so long 
 and tiresome to Dick before, or Mr. Burgess so fidg- 
 ety and exacting ; and when he came home to din- 
 ner, he found Letty and Sybil sitting up with very 
 serious faces and red eyes, and following him about 
 with anxious, deprecating little looks that in his pres-
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 159 
 
 ent nervous, irritable condition, made him, for the 
 first time in his life, almost cross to them. 
 
 But the culminating point was reached, when both 
 the children refused to take a second helping, and he 
 caught Letty making signs to Sybil not to take a 
 second piece of bread and giving her part of hers 
 instead. 
 
 This was more than he could bear, and getting up 
 suddenly, leaving his dinner unfinished, he went out, 
 telling them to go on without him, as he wanted to 
 walk before he went back to the office. 
 
 He could not be angry with the little girls, but he 
 could not endure it. It was plain that Mrs. Tysoe 
 had been talking to them. What talkers women are ! 
 What an idiot he had been not to tell her to hold 
 her tongue ! The only comfort he had had was that 
 the children were happy and light-hearted, and well. 
 He had meant to make the new move appear a pleas- 
 ant change to them, like going out of town in the 
 summer, and to treat it all like a picnic and a piece 
 of fun. 
 
 He had taken the way towards Tipton Grange, 
 and as he passed the stile leading to the farm, he 
 did not, notice that Tip Cat was standing near it, 
 who, however, saw the young man pass and came to
 
 160 TIP CAT. 
 
 much the same conclusion as Mr. Burgess and his 
 clerks had done, from the look of his white, troubled 
 face and heavy, anxious eyes. 
 
 He also saw a little figure that was timidly follow- 
 ing Dick at a distance, making a run now and then 
 to keep him in sight, and giving such a piteous, little 
 out-of-breath sob as she passed the stile, that Tip 
 Cat made a stride forward, as if he would have 
 caught the little thing up or punished that brute of 
 a brother who went walking on, leaving the little, 
 white-faced, delicate sister to hurry after him in all 
 the heat and dust of that Midsummer day. 
 
 Kaiser, too, was indignant at the sight, and instead 
 of restraining himself, as his master had done after 
 the first impulsive stride, he leapt the stile and 
 reached Letty almost at one bound, whining and 
 licking her tearful little face, and circling round her 
 and, taking a corner of her pinafore in his white 
 teeth, pulled it gently as if to remind her that the 
 right way to Tipton Farm was over the stile. 
 
 But Letty was not to be diverted from her pursuit 
 of Dick and she tried to push Kaiser away, but 
 Kaiser had not been a sheep-dog for nothing, and he 
 thought he knew his duty too well to let this little 
 stray lamb wander any further out of the way and
 
 NOTICE TO LEAVE. 161 
 
 he kept firm hold of her pinafore till Dick had disap- 
 peared round the corner of the road, and was quite 
 ouc of sight. 
 
 And then Letty broke down altogether, and burst 
 into such a torrent of sobs, that Kaiser, utterly be- 
 wildered, let go of her, and turned up his head and 
 howled out of very sympathy. It was the very best 
 thing he could have done to make up for the mistake 
 he had made, for the sound reached Dick's ears, and 
 the next moment he re-appeared at the turn of the 
 road, and to his great surprise saw Letty, whom he 
 imagined at home with Sybil, apparently struggling 
 with a big, savage-looking dog. 
 
 It did not take half a minute for Dick to reach 
 the scene of action and snatch Letty up in his arms 
 and give Kaiser a most undeserved whack with his 
 stick, which that animal might have been inclined 
 to resent, if an imperative whistle from the other 
 side of the hedge had not called him off at that very 
 minute. 
 
 But Dick and Letty sat on the green bank by the 
 roadside under the elm trees and comforted one 
 another, for Dick wanted comfort every bit as much 
 at his Jittle, sobbing, trembling sister, and nothing 
 seemed to soothe him so much as her arms clinging
 
 1 62 TIP CAT. 
 
 round his neck and her damp cheek pressed to 
 his. 
 
 They neither of them noticed the Grange carriage 
 and its sleek, grey horses passing by, nor Mrs. Viv- 
 
 * 
 
 ian's curious scrutiny through her gold eye-glasses. 
 . " Who are they, Kathie, ? " she said to the girl at 
 her side. "I don't seem to know their faces. 
 What a pretty child ? " 
 
 "I didn't see them, Auntie, but I daresay they 
 belong to one of the cottages in the lane." 
 
 Dick was late at the office that afternoon, he had 
 no watch to tell him the time now, and besides it 
 took some time to quiet Letty's convulsive sobs, and 
 soothe her troubled little heart into composure and 
 take her back to Mrs. Tysoe's ; and Mr. Lupton 
 gave a little sneer about punctuality when he came 
 in, and Mr. Burgess was snappish, and out of temper 
 but Dick did not feel nearly as bad as he had done in 
 the morning, or as if he would like to knock his head 
 against the dingy office wall and have done with it all. 
 
 " And, Sybil, " Letty said, between the turns of 
 the coffee-grinder, that afternoon, " I've promised 
 Dick ever so faithful that we'll always eat as much 
 as we possibly can, and take two helpings at dinner, 
 for he bcvys if we don't it will just break his heart."
 
 THE FLITTING. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FLITTING. 
 
 DICK was very glad when that last week at Mrs. 
 Tysoe's was over. Mrs Tysoe was kindness itself, 
 but kindness with tearful eyes and gloomy forebod- 
 ings, and rather a resentful manner, as if Dick's 
 poverty were somehow a personal affront to herself. 
 
 It was quite a relief to Dick when he heard that 
 negotiations with the Christian commercial traveller 
 were going on favorably, and that the Tysoes' lodg- 
 ings would not be vacant for more than a couple of 
 days after he left, but even this desirable arrange- 
 ment could not be mentioned without a sigh, and 
 nothing could induce Mrs. Tysoe to take a cheerful 
 view of anything, though Dick and the little girls, 
 after that first despondency, found a good deal that 
 was pleasant in the prospect. 
 
 Dick had not only to endure a good deal from his 
 old landlady but also from his new one, who was at
 
 164 TIP CAT. 
 
 ways starting some fresh panic and insuperable 
 difficulty, which required sometimes hours of the 
 most vigorous and hopeful persuasion from Dick to 
 counteract. 
 
 " She's a pore sperritted crittur." her husband would 
 say, waylaying Dick as he came out of the office at 
 dinner-time to convey some alarming piece of in- 
 telligence. " She ain't slept a wink all night ; and 
 she woke me at two, and she says, says she, ' There 
 ain't a warming-pan in the place, and most like 
 they're all a' used to it every night of their lives,' says 
 she." 
 
 As this difficulty was suggested under a blazing 
 sun, with every probability of sunstroke, and Ricketts 
 constantly applying his red-cotton handkerchief to a 
 very moist forehead, a warming-pan did not seem a 
 very immediate necessity. 
 
 Another time it was a more important difficulty. 
 The four- post bed allotted to Letty and Sybil had, 
 for some reason best known to itself, sat down like 
 a cat during the night, and the old woman was in 
 despair at the idea of what might have been the 
 result if the children had been in bed at the time. 
 But Dick and Ricketts together restored the bed- 
 stead to its original position and prevented any
 
 THE FLITTING. 165 
 
 chance of its repeating its eccentric behavior, and 
 when once Dick had taken to a hammer and nails, he 
 developed quite a talent for carpentering, and put up 
 a rail for the children's towels and some pegs for their 
 frocks to hang on at an easier distance from the 
 ground than those at Mrs. Tysoe's, and a shelf or two 
 in a recess. 
 
 The only thing he found it necessary to supply was 
 a bath for the children, as he unearthed a big, wooden 
 tub from an outhouse that would do nicely for him. 
 He undertook to fill the baths himself every even- 
 ing, for there was no pump, but only an open well, 
 out of which water was drawn in a bucket by means 
 of a long pole, and Mrs. Ricketts looked rather 
 aghast at these preparations for much washing, which 
 her new lodgers seemed to consider quite as necessary 
 a part of life as eating and sleeping. 
 
 Dick spent most of his evenings over at the cottage 
 that week, and generally Letty and Sybil went with 
 him, assisting, with much bustling, in the arrange- 
 ments. At any rate they could not starve, as Dick 
 provided that a plentiful supply of milk should 
 be sent every morning from the nearest farm, and 
 home-made bread and butter from the same source, 
 and the rest of the food Dick could bring with him
 
 1 66 TIP CAT. 
 
 every day from the town, or Mr. Tysoe would supply 
 on his weekly call. 
 
 The thing that most preyed on Dick's mind was 
 the children's toilets. He had gained a little ex- 
 perience since they came to Slowmill, but he very 
 much doubted his capability when there was no longer 
 Mrs. Tysoe to appeal to in an emergency, and when 
 one evening he made an experiment in doing Sybil's 
 hair, such screams followed the first application of a 
 comb to the bright curly tangle, that he gave it up 
 in despair, and wondered if Mrs. Tysoe would let 
 them come in two or three times a week to have their 
 hair dressed by her, and try and make shift on the 
 other days. 
 
 Letty thought it was very naughty of Sybil to 
 scream and run away when Dick combed her hair, 
 and offered her own head to be operated on, setting 
 her lips with the determination of a martyr that no 
 suffering should wring a sound from her, but Dick 
 would not put her to the test, and~ he soon forgot 
 all about it, and wondered why Letty sat with her 
 arms folded on the table and her chin resting on 
 them in deep thought, and still more when she drew 
 a chair in front of the fireplace and mounted on it 
 and took a long look at herself in the little mirror.
 
 THE FLITTIA'G. 167 
 
 " What a vain little puss it is," he said, laughing, 
 and thinking that sweet, little, wistful face was some- 
 thing to be vain of. 
 
 But Letty flushed all over to her finger-tips at his 
 words, and jumping down, ran and hid her hot 
 ashamed little face on his shoulder. 
 
 " I was thinking," she said " I was wondering, 
 Dick, if you would love us quite as well every bit 
 not a tiny bit less if Sybil and me was ugly 
 quite ugly like boys you know." 
 
 Dick laughed. " Are boys always so ugly, Letty ? " 
 
 "Don't laugh, Dick. I want you to say, really 
 and truly, if we was ugly and horrid-looking little 
 girls, would you love us ever so much as you do 
 now ? " 
 
 She was so earnest and serious that Dick did not 
 laugh again, but took the sweet little face between 
 his hands and looked into the great clear eyes. 
 
 " You never could be ugly or horrid to me, Letty -, 
 and I could not love you less if I tried." 
 
 This seemed to satisfy her, and she got down and 
 ran away. 
 
 The next day, when Dick came out of the office, 
 the little girls were not waiting for him at the corner, 
 and he felt a little surprised, as he knew this was
 
 1 68 TIP CAT. 
 
 not the day for Mrs. Tysoe's cart to go out, and the 
 children had told him, \\ith some mystery at dinner, 
 that they were not going to Tip Cat's, as they had 
 something else to do. 
 
 Neither were they in the shop, nor looking out 
 at the sitting-room window ; and though tea was 
 ready when he got in, there was no sign of Letty and 
 Sybil. He called them, but received no answer, and 
 took up a paper to read till they made their appear- 
 ance. 
 
 But presently he became aware that some one 
 was outside the door, which stood a little ajar ; it 
 moved slightly on its hinges and the handle turned as 
 if a hand were on it outside and he heard a whis- 
 per. 
 
 " Letty," he said, "is that you ? Make haste , I 
 must be off to the Ricketts' after tea." 
 
 But at the first word he heard a rush away 
 from the door and down the passage to their bedroom. 
 
 He thought it was some game, and fell into what 
 he supposed the humor of it. 
 
 " Well," he said, aloud to himself, (: I suppose 
 Letty and Sybil have gone out to tea, so I must 
 begin."
 
 THE FLITTING. 169 
 
 Again the steps came stealing along the passage 
 and again hesitated at the door, and this time Dick 
 got up very quietly and went on tip-toe to the door, 
 and, before the children had time to run away, threw 
 it open. 
 
 But instead of the burst of laughter that he ex- 
 pected to end the joke, the children gave a cry and 
 rushed at Dick, and getting behind him, held on to 
 his arms and coat, so that he could not turn. 
 
 " Oh, Dick, don't look at us ! You promised you 
 would love us just the same, and we never could 
 have done our hair ourselves ! And Sybil couldn't 
 help screaming when you combed it, and Mrs. 
 Tysoe said it would be a good thing Oh Dick ! 
 don't don't ! " 
 
 For Dick had them by this time well in view, and 
 was crying yes, actually crying over two little 
 cropped heads. 
 
 The next day the children came back from Tip 
 Cat's in the greatest state of satisfaction. Three 
 things had happened which had pleased them, and 
 they could hardly tell which was the nicest. 
 
 First, Tip Cat had never even noticed that their 
 hair wats cut short, and when they told him, said 
 they looked more than ever like the Letty he had
 
 170 TIP CAT. 
 
 known long ago. Then he told them that the cor- 
 poral nearly always came from the town by way of 
 the Rickett's cottage, and should call for the children 
 just the same. The children were both surprised 
 and pleased to find that old Ridge came that way, for 
 it had been one of their objections to the Ricketts' 
 that it was so far from Tip Cat's and that they should 
 never be able to go there, and Dick too, wondered 
 that Ridge should care to go quite two miles out of 
 his way, or his master to send him. 
 
 But the third thing was after all the best. " For 
 what do you think we found, Dick, in the front room 
 on a table ? Two beautiful wax dolls, quite as large 
 as Rosabel ; you remember Rosabel, don't you, Dick ? 
 and both exactly alike, with curly golden hair and 
 blue eyes, and lovely clothes, all to take off and on, 
 and white frocks, one with a red sash and the other 
 with a blue, and hats and cloaks, and shoes, and 
 socks. Tip Cat was quite as much surprised as we 
 were, and so was the corporal, but he said he thought 
 they must be meant for us to play with when we 
 came to see him. Wasn't it odd, Dick, for we had 
 been telling him only a little time ago what beauti- 
 ful dolls we used to have in London, and that we 
 had none now because we were poor, and how we
 
 THE FLITTING. 
 
 played with a stuffed rat instead, and had got quite 
 fond of it, only it always had to be a baby in long 
 clothes because of its tail." 
 
 Joe Tysoe was quite upset at the idea of losing his 
 two little play-fellows, and would willingly have re- 
 duced the rent to any extent, or have gone without 
 altogether if Dick would have agreed to stop on 
 those terms, but when he found that Dick was not 
 to be persuaded to remain rent free, he did all he 
 could to make the new quarters comfortable, and 
 helped largely in the moving, only stipulating that 
 the little girls should come at least one day in a 
 week for a drive with him, and now and then to have 
 tea and help grind the coffee. 
 
 The move was accomplished on Saturday, when 
 Mr. Tysoe came in from his rounds and could take 
 them and their belongings in his cart, and Mrs. Ty- 
 soe gave them a grand farewell tea, and packed a 
 basket of groceries to start them with, treating them, 
 altogether as if they were going to a desert island, 
 where none of the necessaries of life were to be pro- 
 cured an idea which rather pleased and excited the 
 little girls, who had found a copy of the Swiss Family 
 Robinson among Tip Cat's books, and were having it 
 read to them by the corporal when, as sometimes
 
 172 TIP CAT. 
 
 happened, Tip Cat was out, and they were left with 
 the old soldier for amusement at Tipton Farm. 
 
 It was a beautiful June evening, and the haymak- 
 ing was at its height, and Mr. Tysoe's cart, in the 
 narrow lanes that led to the Ricketts' cottage, had 
 every now and then to press close to the hedge to let 
 great, loaded, yellow wagons lumber by, and the usu- 
 ally quiet meadows were lively with the voices of 
 the copper-coloured haymakers, tossing and raking 
 and carting, or the swish-swish of the scythes going 
 like clock-work, laying low the rippling, brown-topped 
 grass in sweet-smelling green swathes, or the musi- 
 cal click, click of the whetstones sharpening the 
 scythes. 
 
 Old Ricketts even had been pressed into the ser- 
 vice, as all hands were wanted to carry the hay in 
 the great meadow near his cottage, and Letty and 
 Sybil could hardly stop to say good-bye to Joe Tysoe, 
 so anxious were they to run off and make their first 
 essay at hay-making ; and when Dick had unpacked 
 and settled in as well as he could and went out to 
 find them, they were up on the top of a load with old 
 Ricketts, on their way to the rick-yard, promising to 
 come back in what they call in those parts the " leer" 
 wagon, and Dick, finding a spare rake, fell to and
 
 THE FLITTING. 
 
 worked with a will, and was quite surprised to find 
 what a cure hard work is for the dismals. 
 
 It was altogether a promising beginning, and the 
 farmhouse bread and butter and milk for supper was 
 so nice that they none of them noticed the roughness 
 of the serving up, and Letty and Sybil were asleep 
 as soon as their heads touched the pillow, and did 
 not even hear Dick filling their bath.
 
 174 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 
 
 JUST a month had passed since they left Mrs. Ty- 
 soe's, and it was the middle of July, and one Satur- 
 day afternoon Dick was sitting on that same little 
 plank bridge where he had sat the first Sunday after- 
 noon. There was something about that particular 
 spot which invariably brought Kathie Dumbleton 
 back to his mind. Not that it needed any particular 
 place to do that, for Dick had to be very strict with 
 himself to keep that sweet face of hers from coming 
 between him and his writing in Mr. Burgess's room, 
 or from appearing constantly amid the foolscap and 
 pink tape on Mr. Luptons desk ; but as he thought 
 it his duty to chase away day-dreams in office hours, 
 and not to give way to them too frequently when he 
 was with Letty and Sybil, he considered that he 
 might now and then indulge himself in them, and so
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 175 
 
 occasionally he would come to that little wood, and 
 sit there while the children went on to see Tip Cat, 
 or played down by the water. 
 
 That month had been successful on the whole, 
 quite successful so far as living within their income 
 was concerned, but even now he was not able to save 
 out of it, for Mrs. Ricketts was no manager, nor was 
 Dick, so between them they muddled away the money, 
 it was difficult to say how. Besides this, he found 
 that the walk backwards and forwards told seriously 
 on his boots, and he was obliged to get a new pair, 
 which made a dreadful hole in his money, and led him 
 to wonder how working men can ever keep themselves 
 and large families in boots out of fourteen shillings 
 a week, or sometimes less. 
 
 He ought to be satisfied, he told himself, with the 
 past month ; of course there had been drawbacks, 
 that was only to be expected ; the days were not al- 
 ways bright and cheerful with haymaking, the hay 
 was carted off and the fields left bare, and cattle 
 turned in, and the haymakers disappeared, and the 
 country returned to its usual quiet ; there were wet 
 days When the children could not stir beyond the 
 porch, and found the time hang heavy on their hands 
 as they counted the raindrops from the eaves ; there
 
 176 TIP CAT. 
 
 were days when Mrs. Ricketts was so bad with rheum- 
 atism that she could not do anything, not even boil 
 a potato for the little girls' dinner, and Dick, coming 
 in one evening, found they had only had bread and 
 cheese in the middle of the day. 
 
 He did not come home to dinner as he had done 
 at Mrs. Tysoe's but took something in his pocket, 
 and made a substantial tea when he got home in the 
 evening. He thought it was a great economy, this 
 saving a dinner in the middle of the day, not reckon- 
 ing how he was letting himself down, or noticing that 
 he was not so much up to the mark as he used to be, 
 was sooner tired, and less inclined for exertion. But 
 after that day when the children had nothing but 
 bread and cheese, Dick provided that it should never 
 happen again, and he developed quite a talent for 
 cooking, and broiled chops and poached eggs, and 
 even made puddings, in a manner that quite surprised 
 Mrs. Ricketts, whose one idea was a greasy fry, 
 which was fatiguing after a time. 
 
 There were difficulties now and then over the 
 children's clothes, little repairs that wanted to be done 
 to tapes, buttons, and gathers. Mrs. Ricketts was 
 willing enough, but her working powers at the best 
 had been limited to what she called " gobblefying,"
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 1^^ 
 
 and now her fingers were so twisted and cramped 
 that it was not often she could hold a needle. 
 
 Dick's shirt-buttons, too, came off in a most dis- 
 tracting way ; he had long ceased to be critical over 
 the washing of shirts and collars, but buttons cannot 
 be disregarded, and he sometimes thought, the laun- 
 dress must pick them off on purpose, and regard them 
 as her lawful perquisite. 
 
 That day when he came home, for on Saturday he 
 was home by three o'clock, he found one of his shirts 
 laid out with great pomp on his bed, and became 
 conscious that there was some excitement connected 
 with it, as the little girls followed him up stairs, and 
 stood watching to see the effect produced upon him 
 when he saw it. It was rather crumpled, and his 
 first idea was that the children had been trying their 
 hands at ironing, and had been experimenting on 
 his shirts. But on further examination he observed 
 that a very large pearl button had been sewn on the 
 front with apparently black cotton, and a little spot 
 of blood underneath testified that it had been a 
 work of difficulty, if not of danger. 
 
 " Oh ! Dick, how do you think it looks ? " 
 
 " Oh ,! Dick, it took us all the morning, and we was 
 so afraid it wouldn't be done before you came in ! "
 
 178 TIP CAT. 
 
 " Oh ! Dick, you'll put it on at once, won't you, 
 to see how it feels ? " 
 
 " It wasn't black cotton, Dick, only it took us 
 such a long time to thread the needle, and the cot- 
 ton will get so dirty ! " 
 
 " It was Sybil's finger that bled." 
 
 Nothing would satisfy them but that Dick should 
 put on the shirt at once, and when he came down 
 with it on, he was obliged to unbutton his waistcoat 
 to assure them of the fact, and they were much 
 pleased with the effect, and were quite sorry that 
 Dick's waistcoat buttoned up so high as to conceal 
 the work of art. 
 
 Dick had, to tell the truth, found some difficulty in 
 forcing the button through the buttonhole, which 
 was not intended to allow the passage of so large a 
 body, and it was not made more easy by the button 
 having been sewn on not immediately beneath the 
 hole, but he declared it was highly satisfactory, and 
 they surveyed it with honest pride. 
 
 Dick was smiling to himself as he thought of this, 
 as he sat on the bridge that afternoon, the children 
 having run on to see if Tip Cat were at home, chiefly, 
 Dick was persuaded, that they might tell him of this 
 morning's industry, and perhaps to offer to operate
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 17.9 
 
 on his and the corporal's shirts but they had promised 
 not to be long, as they were to go home to tea. 
 
 He remembered having told Kathie Dumbleton of 
 his two little sisters, and how amused she had been 
 at some of their doings and sayings. Ah ! who was 
 talking to her now ? Who might be calling up a 
 blush to her fair cheek, or a smile to her soft eyes ? 
 Who might be listening to the low, gentle voice ? 
 Ah what luck some fellows had ! But for him 
 never, never again ! And, as these despairing 
 thoughts passed through his mind, a step sounded 
 on the path, and a girl's figure came towards him 
 through the soft, chequered lights and shadows of 
 the wood, and Kathie Dumbleton herself stood there 
 holding out her hand, and saying, " How do you do, 
 Mr. Lucas ? I had no idea you were in this neigh- 
 borhood." 
 
 Dick stumbled to his feet in a strange bewilder- 
 ment. Was it a dream, or an apparition, or a mirage 
 like thirsty travellers see cool water and green 
 trees in the scorching desert? Could it be true, 
 and that she should recognize him in his threadbare 
 coat, greasy at the elbows and frayed at the wrists ? 
 He was keenly conscious of his old boots and crum- 
 pled wristbands, while she only noticed that the
 
 180 TIP CAT. 
 
 sunny faced lad she had met last year at Oxford had 
 grown into a handsome, striking looking man, whose 
 face had gained in strength and thought, if it had lost 
 something of the freshness and brightness. 
 
 After the first moment of intoxicating delight, a 
 feeling of chill disappointment and embarrassment 
 overwhelmed Dick, while Kathie felt puzzled and a 
 little bit uncomfortable at his evident agitation, at 
 his eyes that said too much, and his lips that said 
 too little. The fact \vas they were re-opening this 
 love story of theirs at different parts. With Kathie 
 it was only in the opening numbers, and she was not 
 quite sure if it would turn into a romance after all, 
 'or if it might not be merely a pretty sketch of Oxford 
 Commemoration, and not even " to be continued in 
 our next." She had liked Dick very much, and had 
 thought of him very often since, and had even kept 
 a certain little bunch of wild flowers, picked by the 
 riverside, till it was little more than hay indeed it 
 was only a week or two ago that she had thrown it 
 away, and then it was with a sigh and a feeling that 
 she was growing old and wise, and casting off school- 
 girl sentiment, and that it was a sad world after 
 all. But still, I think Dick's image was fading 
 a little from her memory, and that, but for that un-
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 181 
 
 expected meeting, he might have, in time, been for- 
 gotten. 
 
 But with Dick it was different. He had reached 
 the beginning of the third volume ; in those day- 
 dreams on the plank bridge, or when his thoughts 
 played him false at Mr. Burgess's or smoking in the 
 porch, at the Ricketts', or in Mrs. Tysoe's little 
 room after supper (and don't suppose that the 
 scenes called up in his mind were any the less fair 
 and romantic because his surroundings were common 
 and vulgar ; because there may have been bread and 
 cheese on the table, or a short pipe in his mouth), 
 he had rehearsed so many love scenes with Kathie 
 Dumbleton, that it was impossible for him to forget 
 them all, and to stand there on the bridge talking 
 polite commonplaces like an ordinary acquaintance. 
 
 But girls are quick readers, and, by the time Letty 
 and Sybil appeared running along the path towards 
 them, I think that Kathie was not very far behind 
 Dick in that pretty love story, the pages of which 
 they were turning together, while the sunbeams stole 
 through the thick elm boughs to peep at them, and 
 set the quiet, brown water of the stream beneath 
 them sparkling and dancing under Kathie's eyes, 
 which found it did not do to meet Dick's too often.
 
 1 82 , TIP CAT. 
 
 As to what they said, the robin perched on the 
 hand-rail of the bridge, need not have turned his 
 head to listen so inquisitively, for it was only asking 
 and telling how they both happened to be there, and 
 what Kathie had been doing since they met, and 
 what news there was from Jack in India, and how 
 Mrs. Vivian at the Grange was her aunt, and Kathie 
 was often staying there. 
 
 Dick did not tell her much of himself, only that 
 he had left Oxford when his grandfather died, and 
 had come to live at Slowmill with his two little 
 sisters. 
 
 But Kathie had noticed one or two things by this 
 time, though her eyes seemed riveted to the bright- 
 ness where the sunbeam touched the water. She 
 had seen that he was shabby and sad, and that his 
 voice grew low and full of regret when he spoke of 
 the bright old days at Oxford, and a little hard and 
 bitter when he answered her wonders that she had 
 not met him anywhere, and spoke of tennis parties 
 and dances. 
 
 " And these are your little sisters ? " she said, as 
 Letty and Sybil ran up. " And what a wonderful 
 old dog ! Is that yours ? " 
 
 " Oh, no," Letty answered ; " it's Tip Cat's ; but
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 183 
 
 he always comes to take care of us till we find Dick; 
 and, oh Dick, Tip Cat wants to know if we would 
 like some rabbits, and he wanted to shoot some for 
 us, but we wouldn't let him." 
 
 " Oh, never mind the rabbits," said Dick, looking 
 more critically than he had ever done before at the 
 two little girls, and wishing that they had on their 
 Sunday frocks and that Sybil would not always wear 
 her hat on the back of her head, and that Letty's 
 frock was not out at gathers. " This is Miss Dumble- 
 ton that I have told you about. You remember 
 Jack, don't you ? who took you to the Crystal Palace 
 once ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; we had ices, and mine was striped. 
 Are you Jack's sister ? and is he here ? " 
 
 " No, I am Jack's cousin," she answered ; and 
 Dick thought there had never been anything so grace- 
 ful and lovely as the way in which she took the little 
 girls' hands in hers and kissed their cheeks. How 
 could Sybil presume to take away her sunshade and 
 put it up over her own little ragamuffin head, and Letty 
 to keep hold of the pretty hand and slip the rings up 
 and down the slender white fingers ; and yet Kathie 
 did not seem to mind, but smiled down on them as if 
 she liked it.
 
 1 84 TIP CAT. 
 
 " Now, listen," she said, " for I have a plan, if 
 you have no other engagements this evening." 
 
 Dick laughed. What engagements wefe they likely 
 to have, unless it were to drink tea in the Tysoes' 
 little back-parlor ? 
 
 Kathie hesitated a minute, with a shy little look at 
 Dick, as if she were weighing propriety, and then at 
 the children's eager, upturned faces, as if to find an 
 excuse in them, and then she went on " I am all 
 alone this evening. Aunt Vivian has gone over to 
 Stanlake to spend the day, and may not come back 
 till eight or nine -, so won't you come and have tea 
 with me ? We will have it in the garden," she went 
 on quickly, in answer to a negative movement of 
 Dick's head, " and you can see the peacocks and 
 the Persian kittens, and the flowers." 
 
 Poor Dick ! he was sorely tempted, and the child- 
 ren's eyes turned to him with such a world of en- 
 treaty in them ! but he had an under-feeling that it 
 would be better, wiser, honester not to go. What 
 right had a shabby, struggling lawyer's clerk to go as 
 a guest into Mrs. Vivian's beautiful house ? What 
 right had poor Dick Lucas in the shadow to con- 
 sider himself on anything like terms of equality with 
 fair, happy Kathie Dumbleton, in the sunshine of
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 185 
 
 wealth and prosperity ? It was playing with edged 
 tools, but as far as he was concerned he had already 
 cut his fingers hopelessly, and would carry the scars 
 to his grave, but what if she should get a scratch ? 
 Could he trust himself to be in her company for a 
 blissful hour and not betray his feelings, and hurt 
 her gentle, tender heart by a cowardly display of his 
 hopeless, desperate love ? 
 
 " Thank you," he said, and he thought that his 
 voice sounded quite insolently cool and ungrateful, 
 " it is awfully good of you to ask us, but we must go 
 home to tea, they will be expecting us." 
 
 " Oh, Dick ! " began Sybil, but Letty was begin- 
 ning to understand Dick better, and to know that he 
 would not disappoint them without some good reason, 
 so she gave Sybil a little nudge to be quiet, and pre- 
 pared to relinquish the brilliant prospects of tea and 
 peacocks without a murmur. 
 
 But Kathie had no idea of giving up her plan so 
 easily. 
 
 " It is not very polite of you, I must say, Mr. Lucas, 
 to refuse my invitation when I told you I was alone, 
 and want some one to amuse me. But, if you .will 
 not come, I am sure Letty and Sybil will ; indeed, I 
 don't mean to let them off, so if you must go home 
 to tea you will have to go alone."
 
 1 86 TIP CAT, 
 
 And with that she walked off, holding a hand of 
 each of the little girls, who went with her nothing 
 loth, but casting deprecating glances back at Dick, 
 hoping he would not be vexed with them. 
 
 "And Dick stood by the bridge looking after them, 
 hesitating for half a minute ; many a time afterwards 
 did he blame himself for that pitiful weakness, and 
 told himself that, if he only had been a man, he 
 would have shaken himself free from the fascination, 
 and not fluttered round the flame like a silly moth. 
 
 But at the turn of the path Kathie looked back at 
 him, and he followed her. Why not ? Why should 
 not he have one hour of happiness ? It would be 
 the last in all the long hours of dull life before him. 
 Just for this one evening he would forget all the 
 troubles and worries, and the office, and the weekly 
 bills, and enjoy himself. So he quickened his foot- 
 steps, and overtook them as they came out of the 
 wood into the park, and Kathie, looking back at him 
 with a smile, said, " That's right, you have thought 
 better of it ! " 
 
 There was not room for all of them to walk 
 abreast, and the children still had hold of her hands, 
 but Dick was well content to walk behind and get 
 a look or a word from her now and then over her
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 187 
 
 shoulder, and to tread the same path she was tread- 
 ing, and to take away a bramble that clung to her 
 dress, and to feast his eyes on her sligh'., graceful 
 figure, and on the sunny chestnut hair, coiled so 
 softly low on the milk-white neck. As for her dress, 
 though his eyes were never off her all the way through 
 the park, he could not have described it, for Kathie 
 Dumbleton had that rare art of dressing so that you 
 only saw that she was sweet and lovely, and did not 
 notice the details of material and trimming and 
 make. 
 
 Dick had no time to notice the beauty of the park 
 except as a background to the lithe young figure, or 
 to see the broad shadows on the grass, and the un- 
 dulating slopes, and the great spreading elm trees 
 and giant oaks. Presently they passed through a 
 little iron gate into the garden and along a shady 
 shrubbery path out on to a wide lawn of velvet turf 
 sloping up to the house, the long front of which lay 
 before them. There was nothing architecturally 
 beautiful about the house, but the warm tiles of the 
 roof, and the old bricks showing here and there among 
 the thick-growing ivy and Virginian creeper were 
 pleasant to the eye, and the square windows with 
 their heavy white frames had a friendly, homish look.
 
 1 88 TIP CAT. 
 
 There were gay flower-beds in geometrical patterns 
 in front of the house, dazzling with scarlet and purple 
 and orange, and to the left some broad stone steps 
 led up to a terrace skirting that side of the house, 
 and on those steps a peacock was spreading his 
 magnificent tail in the sun and strutting with pardon- 
 able pride, and another looked on from the balustrade 
 behind. Below the terrace lay the rose-garden, but 
 Kathie led the way to the right where two great black 
 cedars stood throwing deep shade on the turf as if 
 entering a solemn protest against the frivolity of the 
 summer flowers. Some garden-chairs were standing 
 in the cool shadow, which was very inviting after 
 the stretch of hot July sun across the lawn, and here 
 Kathie left Dick while she went into the house to 
 hasten the appearance of tea ; and she took the little 
 girls with her, for she had seen without appearing to 
 notice it, how Dick had been making little hasty and 
 unsuccessful efforts to improve the children's appear- 
 ance, setting Sybil's hat straight and smoothing the 
 hair off Letty's forehead. 
 
 So Dick sat under the cedar in one of those com- 
 fortable, cushioned, garden-chairs, in which the 
 proper depth of seat and slope of back were calcu- 
 lated to a nicety, with half-shut eyes of dreamy satis-
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 189 
 
 faction, watching the peacocks strutting on the terrace 
 steps, and the trembling of the hot air above the 
 lawn and the dazzle of the flowers in the beds, from 
 which came heavy-laden bees every now and then, 
 passing with a hum of reproach to the idler. Quick- 
 footed, quiet servants were meanwhile spreading a 
 little tea-table with dainty china and shining silver, 
 and a gentle chocolate Dachshund came softly 
 waddling on very bow legs and stretched a yard and 
 a half length of dog at Dick's feet. 
 
 Kathie and the children came back by way of the 
 rose-garden, as the beautiful roses pinned to each 
 child's frock bore witness, but that ungrateful Dick 
 hardly noticed the improvement worked in their ap_ 
 pearance, how Letty's gathers had been mended and 
 Sybil's hat bent straight, and how smooth and neatly 
 parted each bright little head was, and how the same 
 subtle violet fragrance hung about them as it did 
 about Kathie. But how could Dick have eyes for 
 any one but Kathie herself when he knew it was only 
 for an hour, and then, never, never again. Only an 
 hour, so the poor young fellow poisoned the pleasure 
 of the present by anticipation of the future, only an 
 hour, during which he might look at her and hear her 
 voice, and perhaps now and then touch her hand in
 
 19 TIP CAT. 
 
 passing a cup, or feel her dress brush against him, 
 and then it would be time to go, and perhaps she 
 would walk across the lawn with them and kiss the 
 children, and then he should hold her little hand in 
 his just for two seconds, no more, and she would look 
 at him and say " Good-by," and then he would go 
 away and never see her again, never, all through a 
 long life, reaching perhaps as his grandfather's had 
 done, to nearly eighty, working at Mr. Burgess's day 
 after day, week after week, year after year, with the 
 one excitement and interest of his life being how he 
 could save a halfpenny here and a penny there on 
 his weekly bills. He had heard of men living on 
 faithful to the memory of their first love. Yes, but 
 surely they had something more to remember than 
 he had. Why, he could count the number of hours 
 he had spent in Kathie's company, could tell off on 
 the fingers of one hand how often he had held her 
 hand in his. And was this enough to live on for it 
 might be fifty years ? 
 
 But meantime Kathie was pouring out tea and 
 talking and laughing with the children, and Dick too 
 joined in, and talked and laughed, in spite of the 
 fifty years he was inwardly contemplating. 
 
 How delightful it was to have his cup handed to
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 191 
 
 him by Kathie, and what a pretty cup it was too, 
 white, lined with turquoise blue. He had never 
 realized how entirely he had lost all the elegancies 
 of life, he had hardly indeed missed them, till he 
 got this glimpse of them again. 
 
 Letty and Sybil of course exclaimed openly at 
 everything, including the cakes and bread and butter, 
 and the thick cream, and Dick, while he wished they 
 would not be so very outspoken, felt ashamed to con- 
 fess to himself that he felt much the same, and that 
 it was not only because Kathie poured out the tea 
 that he liked it so, but because it was in delicate 
 china, and was strong, and had cream in it. How 
 quickly the time rushed past, tea was done, and they 
 went to see the conservatory and the gardens, and 
 the children wandered away, exploring by themselves 
 leaving Dick and Kathie loitering in the rose-garden. 
 
 What did they talk of ? Nothing worth telling 
 sorts of roses, London flower-shows, colors and tints, 
 and sometimes they were silent, looking both of them 
 into the deep, crimson heart of a rose. 
 
 "Dick! Dick! where are you?" The children 
 are calling from the terrace, the sunset is flaming in 
 the sky and Dick wakes with a start and a cold sink- 
 ing of the heart, to the fact that it is time to go.
 
 192 TIP CAT. 
 
 Just as he had fancied, she walks across the lawn 
 with them, through the shrubbery to fhe gate into 
 the park, and, just as he had pictured, she kisses the 
 little girls who cling round her with many expres- 
 sions of affection and desire to meet again. And 
 then she turns to Dick and holds out her hand and 
 looks at him and says " Good-bye. " 
 
 The children have run on thinking they see Tip 
 Cat in the distance, and Dick holds Kathie's hand 
 in his just as he had imagined ; but he had never 
 dreamt that he could do such a thing as seize both 
 those soft white hands in his and hold them tight 
 for two whole minutes, covering them with burning 
 passionate kisses and murmuring, " Oh ! Kathie, my 
 love, my love, good-bye ! " 
 
 " Why ! Kathie, child, what are you doing here ? 
 They told me you were in the garden, and I have 
 been looking for you everywhere. Did you think I 
 was never coming back ? You're a nice little per- 
 son, I must say, to leave to yourself, for I hear you 
 have had company, and a gentleman too, to tea ! 
 Who was he, dear ? Simpson did not seem to know 
 why, Kathie darling, what is it ? " 
 
 The girl's face was very pale, even in the dark of 
 the shrubbery, for the sun had set an hour ago, and
 
 TEA AT THE GRANGE. 193 
 
 her hands were limp and cold as Mrs. Vivian took 
 them in hers. 
 
 " It is nothing," Kathie said, " nothing, but " 
 and she let the kind old friend draw her head down 
 on to her motherly breast " but I think my heart is 
 broken."
 
 194 TIPCAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 LETTY'S BIRTHDAY. 
 
 " DICK, don't people's birthdays always come on 
 the same day every year ? " 
 
 " Yes, Letty, I suppose they do." 
 
 "Then Mrs. Ricketts was wrong. I knew she 
 was, for she said that my birthday came on a Mon- 
 day this year, and it was on Sunday last year, so, of 
 course, it always will come on a Sunday, won't it, 
 Dick?" 
 
 Dick was lying flat on his back in the meadow, 
 looking straight up into the sky, and his thoughts 
 were so far away that it needed a strong effort to get 
 them back-sufficiently to allow of his unravelling the 
 mystery of days of the week and days of the month, 
 and, having done so, he prepared to let his thoughts 
 drift away again, but Letty had a good deal more to 
 say on the subject. 
 
 " Well, Dick, if it really is on Monday, do you
 
 LE TTY ' S BIR THDA Y. 195 
 
 know it will be Bank-holiday as well, Mrs. Ricketts 
 says, and you won't have to go to the office ? I 
 wanted it to be on a Sunday so that you might be 
 at home, but if it is Bank-holiday I would rather 
 have it on a Monday, because we can play and do 
 something really nice. What shall we do on my 
 birthday, Dick ? Of course I know we are much 
 too poor to have birthday presents or an iced cake, 
 but don't you think we might do something, Dick ? " 
 
 " I don't know, Letty. Shall we stop in bed all 
 day for a change ? " 
 
 " I don't think I should like that, should you, 
 Dick ? " 
 
 " Yes, as well as anything else." 
 
 " Dick ? " 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Don't you think we might go and have tea with 
 Kathie Dumbleton again ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I met her this morning." 
 
 " Did you ? Where ? " Dick was wide awake 
 now, and had raised himself on his elbow. 
 
 " On the way to Tip-Cat's. She was driving, but 
 she stopped." 
 
 " What did she say ? "
 
 I9 TIP CA T. 
 
 " She asked where Sybil was, and who the cor- 
 poral was, and where I was going." 
 
 " Anything else ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think so ; but she kissed me once for 
 myself and once for Sybil. 
 
 " Did she say anything about me ? " asked poor 
 hungry Dick. 
 
 " No ; but, Dick, she kissed me again after the 
 kiss for Sybil, and it was a longer, nicer, kiss than 
 either, and, Dick, I thought she meant it for you," 
 said the cunning, loving little soul, longing to com- 
 fort him, and finding the way instinctively. 
 
 Letty's birthday ? Dick wondered what could be 
 done to celebrate it, as he turned over the few pence 
 that remained after the bills were paid. It used to 
 be so easy to get up some sort of festivity, but now, 
 apart from the money difficulty, he did not seem to 
 have any energy or invention. He only hoped 
 the little girls might devise something that would be 
 within his means and power to carry out. 
 
 But one evening when he came back from Slow- 
 mill, the children met him nearly half way to the 
 town, having been on the look-out for him all the 
 afternoon, going a few steps every two or three min- 
 tes, almost unconsciously, in their impatience, for
 
 LE TTY'S BIR THDA Y. 197 
 
 Dick did not like their roaming about* the roads by 
 themselves, so they generally waited at the gate into 
 the field to receive him. But to-day something so 
 very important had happened that they quite forgot 
 to explain how they came to be half a mile from 
 home without their hats. 
 
 Letty had got a letter. So few letters came to 
 the Ricketts' that the old postman left the delivery 
 of it to the very last, so it was nearly noonday before 
 he hobbled across the meadow and read out the ad- 
 dress to Mrs. Ricketts and the little girls, just as 
 they were putting ori the potatoes for dinner. 
 
 " Miss Lettice Lucas, 
 
 " Mr. Ricketts, 
 " Near Longmead Farm, 
 
 11 Slowmill." 
 
 " That's me ; " said Letty ; " I had a valentine once 
 from Dick and it was directed Miss Lettice Lucas." 
 
 " But it's not Valentine's day," objected Sybil. 
 
 " No, but it's nearly my birthday and I dare say 
 some one has made a mistake and does not know 
 that it comes on Monday this year." 
 
 They both of them made a careful study of the di-
 
 198 TIP CAT. 
 
 rection, and so did Mrs. Ricketts, putting on her large 
 pair of horn-rimmed spectacles to see better, but she 
 was not much " more of a scholard " than Letty and 
 Sybil, and only managed to read a few verses out of 
 the Bible by the sweat of her brow, and could not at- 
 tempt to decipher handwriting, so they resolved to 
 keep it till Dick came home before they opened it ; 
 and this was the cause of the appearance of two little 
 hatless girls before Dick's astonished eyes on his 
 way home that evening. 
 
 The letter had got quite worn at the corners and 
 dirty by constant scrutiny, and by being kept some- 
 times in Letty's little pocket and sometimes inside 
 the body of her frock for greater safety. 
 
 Dick was tired both in body and mind and was 
 not sorry for an excuse to turn into the nearest 
 field and sit down on the grass. 
 
 " It's not Uncle Tom's writing," he said, " nor 
 Aunt Maria's. Who can it be ? " 
 
 Letty opened it with due solemnity ; when you have 
 only had two letters in your life, you would not be 
 likely to resign the dignity of opening one to other 
 hands. Inside there was not a proper letter, beginning 
 " My dear Letty," and ending " Yours affectionately," 
 not even a birthday card, but only rather a crumpled
 
 LE TTY'S BIR THDA Y. 1 99 
 
 bit of tissue paper, with some printing on it, folded in 
 a half-sheet of note-paper with a few lines of writing 
 on it. Letty's face fell with disappointment, but 
 Dick caught it from her hand with an exclamation 
 of surprise. " It is a 5/. note," he said. 
 
 " For Letty's birthday, to be spent as she likes," 
 was written on the paper. 
 
 It was a minute or two before Letty could realise 
 that the dirty piece of paper was of the same value 
 as five golden sovereigns, and, meanwhile, Dick was 
 examining the writing and the postmark to find out 
 who the sender could be. There was only the Slow- 
 mill postmark, so the little girls' strong persuasion 
 that it came from Aunt Maria could have no founda- 
 tion, even if the writing had the least resembled 
 that lady's angular style. So too it could not be Mr. 
 Murchison ; and Mr. Tysoe, with all the good-will 
 in the world, could not have afforded such a hand- 
 some present, and would not have given it secretly if 
 he could. Mr. Burgess ? but what did he know or 
 care about Letty's birthday ? Dick hardly thought he 
 was aware of the children's existence. 
 
 Who then could it be but Kathie ? No doubt the 
 children had chattered to her of this birthday, and of 
 their being too poor to celebrate it as they used, and
 
 200 TIP CAT. 
 
 she had hit upon this plan of giving the children a 
 treat without hurting any one's pride. To be sure 
 the writing was more like a man's, but Dick did not 
 know what Kathie's writing might be like, and be- 
 sides it might be feigned or directed by some one. 
 else. So Dick made up his mind that it was Kathie's 
 gift, and loved her, if that were possible, all the bet- 
 ter for it, and would have liked to have the envelope 
 to treasure among his few precious keepsakes, if 
 Letty would have parted with it ; and he let the 
 children guess one person after another as the prob- 
 able giver Jenkins, Mr. Tysoe, Tip Cat, Mr. 
 Murchison, Ellen or Grace without attempting to 
 set them right. 
 
 But how was it to be spent ? Next day to Letty's ex- 
 treme delight he changed it in Slowmill for five of 
 the brightest Sovereigns he could get. It should all 
 be spent on Letty's birthday, and Letty's pleasure, 
 and not a halfpenny should get mixed in with the 
 housekeeping money on any consideration, though a 
 little addition to that very scanty allowance would 
 have made the wheels run smoothly for weeks to 
 come. 
 
 But Letty and Sybil soon made up their minds 
 what they should like to do, and their plan found
 
 LE TTY'S BIR THDA Y. 201 
 
 great favour in Dick's eyes, for since that evening 
 at the Grange he had never gone anywhere except 
 straight to the office and back, not even to church 
 on Sunday, and the idea of getting clear away from 
 Slowmill for a couple of days seemed to Dick like 
 the opening of a cage door to a bird. The idea was 
 to go to the seaside to spend Sunday and Monday. 
 Letty did not mind where, as long as there were 
 shells to pick up, and donkeys to ride, and rocks 
 where they could paddle about and find crabs ; and 
 after much consultation Sandyshore was decided on 
 as fulfilling most of these requirements, and also 
 not being a very long journey and not being a likely 
 place to meet any of their former London or Oxford 
 friends. 
 
 No doubt it would be overwhelmed with excur- 
 sionists, but this would be the same everywhere, 
 and after all, they were excursionists themselves, so 
 what right had they to object to others ? They would 
 do it all comfortably, and to begin with, they had a 
 fly to the station, and the children much regretted 
 that the way to the station did not lie through the 
 town, so that the Tysoes might see their unusual 
 grandeur. 
 
 It gave Letty such exquisite satisfaction to think
 
 202 TIP CAT. 
 
 that it was all being paid for out of her money and 
 that she' was giving Dick and Sybil a treat as well 
 as herself ; and at starting it was arranged that she 
 should keep the money, having laid out the first 
 shilling on a smart little blue purse, but it proved 
 such an anxious charge, being lost twice on the way 
 to the station, that they agreed that Dick had better 
 undertake it. 
 
 It was a beautiful day, and the children were so 
 happy and so gay that Dick could not brood over 
 his troubles as he had done of late, but found himself 
 laughing almost like old times, and wondered how 
 he could be so cheerful when he had said good-bye 
 to Kathie for ever. 
 
 They got down to Sandyshore by six, and had din- 
 ner at a little round table in a large bow window at 
 the principal hotel, looking out on a dancing bright 
 green sea, studded with boats and yachts and fishing 
 smacks, and more distant steamers, while in the fore- 
 ground was the esplanade, with a band playing, and 
 carriages driving past, and parties of ladies on horse- 
 back cantering by, and just across the road was a 
 stand of patient, subdued donkeys with scarlet-bound 
 saddle-cloths, and wicked-looking goats chewing the 
 cud, and surveying the crowd with evil, glassy, yel- 
 low eyes.
 
 LE rry's BIR THDA Y. 2 03 
 
 Sybil and Letty were so excited by the gay pros- 
 pect, so different from that at Ricketts', or even the 
 Tysoes', that they could scarcely eat their dinner, 
 though Letty herself had chosen it, trying to combine 
 everything she had ever heard Dick say that he 
 liked. 
 
 And after dinner they went out and walked along 
 the esplanade till they had got away from most of 
 the crowd, and could only hear snatches of the music 
 now and then. The sun had set, and the gold and 
 crimson was dying into orange and brown, and a 
 little dainty crescent moon was asserting her right 
 to govern the night, though she was not strong 
 enough to draw a thread of light across the purple sea. 
 The tide was going down, and the cool air was laden 
 with the refreshing smell of the seaweed on the un- 
 covered rocks. It was too dark to explore those 
 slippery promontories and tempting pools, so the chil- 
 dren contented themselves with popping the brown 
 pods of the seaweed on the break-water, where Dick 
 sat smoking a really good cigar, of which Letty had 
 insisted on laying in a store before they left the 
 neighborhood of the shops, as well as chocolates and 
 sugared almonds for herself and Sybil. 
 
 It was very soothing and very refreshing, and the
 
 204 TIP CAT. 
 
 soft wash and splash of the little waves on the rocks 
 whispered hope to a heart that was too young to de- 
 spair, and Dick found himself thinking, " Ah, perhaps, 
 some day " instead of " Never again ! never again !"
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 
 
 SUNDAY passed entirely to the children's satisfac- 
 tion, but much too fast, and Monday dawned as 
 bright a day as the most exacting Bank-holiday-maker 
 could possibly desire, the sky one stretch of vivid 
 blue, the sea of sparkling silver. 
 
 Dick went out for a bathe before breakfast, and 
 came .back looking as if the sea had washed the 
 price of meat and quartern loaves out of his head, to 
 find the little girls peeping out of the coffee-room 
 window impatient for his return, having made great 
 friends with one of the waiters, and ordered break- 
 fast at the same table at which they had dined on 
 Saturday evening. They were obliged to make- 
 haste over breakfast, as they had sent across to 
 engage donkeys immediately -afterwards, as the 
 waiter had told them that, when once the excursion
 
 206 TIP CAT. 
 
 trains began to arrive, they would not have a chance 
 of a donkey, and they were very particular in their 
 selection, both of donkeys and boys. 
 
 They went for an hour's ride along the sands, and 
 might have gone much further in the time if they 
 would have allowed the stick to have been more 
 freely applied. Then they devoted themselves to 
 digging and castle-building and shell-finding and 
 paddling about the rocks, and finished a most delight- 
 ful morning by a row in a boat with Dick out beyond 
 the end of the pier. Then came dinner, and, after 
 that, as their train did not start till four, there would 
 still be two delightful hours to go and see how 
 their castle had withstood the encroachments of the 
 tide. 
 
 " Oh, Dick ! " Letty said, as she capered along 
 at his side, " I don't think ever any one had such a 
 delightful birthday ! " 
 
 Their fortifications had been constructed on the 
 beach near where they had been sitting on Saturday 
 evening, beyond the extremest limit of the esplanade, 
 which at Sandyshore stretches out to more than a 
 mile of terraces and rows of green-shuttered houses. 
 Osnaburgh Terrace is the last row of houses on the 
 esplanade, but beyond this some adventurous builder
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 2O? 
 
 had run up two or three detached villas of pale yel- 
 low, half-baked-looking brick, only divided from the 
 beach by a little bit of sandy garden and unpainted 
 iron railings. Two of these desirable residences 
 were to let, as declared by a large board in the 
 garden and bills in each of the windows ; but the 
 third and furthest from the town seemed to be in- 
 habited, for Dick had noticed in the morning a 
 brougham standing a long time at the door on the 
 road, which approached the house from the back. 
 Now a light invalid carriage was in the garden, and 
 soon after Dick had taken up his seat on the break- 
 water, and while Letty and Sybil were hard at work 
 building up the walls of their fortress, which had 
 already begun to yield to the assaults of the creamy, 
 incoming waves, a child was carried out of the house 
 and laid in the carriage a child wrapped and 
 swaddled up as if a breath of the sweet, strong sea- 
 air might be too much for her, and laid so tenderly 
 on soft cushions, and the carriage moved so carefully, 
 as if a sudden jerk or jar might shatter the fragile 
 little frame. 
 
 It was evidently a trained nurse who carried the 
 poor little invalid so skilfully, and that could be none 
 other than the mother who fussed and fidgeted be-
 
 2o8 TIP CAT. 
 
 hind, scolding the clumsy but well-meaning nurse- 
 girl who was to draw the chair, in tones that some- 
 how sounded familiar to Dick as he listened. 
 
 His attention was called away just then to the 
 children, who wanted his help to finish the bridge 
 between their castle and the breakwater, and when 
 he returned to his seat the little carriage had been 
 brought over the rough sand heaps at the top of the 
 beach, and now, having gained the level, was being 
 pulled slowly along the sand only a few yards away 
 from him, with the anxious mother guiding and 
 steadying the carriage from behind. No wonder 
 that her tones had been familiar in Dick's ear, 
 especially in the act of scolding, for it was Aunt 
 Maria. 
 
 Dick gave a start and suppressed exclamation of 
 recognition, which was echoed by Aunt Maria ; but, 
 it was the child who spoke first, crying in a thin", 
 weak little voice, half-stifled in pillows and wraps, 
 " Dick ! Dick ! it is cousin Dick, mamma." 
 
 He never would have recognised Ellen in that wan, 
 drawn little face, with great eager eyes and close- 
 cropped hair and sunken temples, and lips drawn 
 tightly across the teeth. . But Ellen it was, and Dick's 
 heart gave a great bound of pity as he glanced from
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 209 
 
 her to Letty and Sybil such sunburnt, happy, 
 healthy little creatures, standing barefooted and 
 laughing, clinging together on their castle, while the 
 water creamed up round their little pink feet. 
 
 Aunt Maria made a step back from Dick's out- 
 stretched hand, and gave a movement as if to wave 
 him away ; but Dick, who set it down to her recollec- 
 tion of their last parting, was not to be repulsed, and 
 took her hand and bent to kiss her cheek, which surely 
 had grown wonderfully old and furrowed since last 
 they met. As for him, any feeling of resentment that 
 might have lurked anywhere in his inmost heart (and 
 I hardly believe any remained), vanished at the sight 
 of Ellen's death-stricken face, and the miserable 
 agony of anxiety in her mother's. 
 
 But Aunt Maria was strangely ungracious still. 
 " Don't ! " she said, almost flinging Dick's hand from 
 her. " You'd better go and take the children away. 
 Oh ! merciful heaven ! how well and strong they 
 look ! For pity's sake take them away." 
 
 What could she mean ? Dick drew back a minute, 
 puzzled and wounded ; but Ellen's little feeble voice 
 recalled him. 
 
 " Dick," she said, " don't go away. Dick was 
 always kind to me."
 
 2io TIP CAT. 
 
 " Yes, my darling, yes. Dick shall stay. Oh, 
 what shall I do ? " cried the poor woman. " She 
 has hardly taken any notice of any one before, and 
 she looks so much brighter now. The doctor said 
 it would do her good to be out in the air, but I think 
 it was seeing you did it. Yes, she has been very ill, 
 and so is Grace ; but Ellen is getting better, much 
 better," she said, looking into Dick's face with that 
 hungry longing for assent, that insistence of poor souls 
 who do not believe what they say themselves, and 
 yet would try to force it on others. " But Grace is 
 very bad ; we are very anxious about her, and oh !" 
 she exclaimed, turning to the house, where a signal 
 was being given from the bedroom window, " she 
 wants me ; I must go. She must be worse. Oh, 
 Dick, stay with Ellen. I won't be long ; I will be 
 back in a minute. Don't let the children go near 
 her." 
 
 "They shall not disturb her," Dick said, rather 
 resenting the insinuation that little gentle Letty or 
 Sybil could be rough or noisy with the sick child, and 
 Aunt Maria hastened away to the house. 
 
 Letty and Sybil had become aware by this time 
 that Dick was talking to some one, and now came 
 up to the chair, standing with their tucked-up frocks
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEE TING. 211 
 
 and bare feet, and with spades in their hands, looking 
 with large, round eyes of wonder at the child whom 
 they could hardly believe to be the cousin Ellen with 
 whom they used to play and quarrel, and who had 
 slapped them, and been slapped in return. But 
 Ellen took hardly any notice of them, or of the bright- 
 colored pebbles and shells and seaweed which they 
 had collected, and the best of which they laid on the 
 edge of the carriage as an offering to her ; but it 
 was Dick's name she kept murmuring, and Dick that 
 her great eyes followed ; and when for a moment he 
 was out of sight she broke into a little, fretful, wail- 
 ing cry ; and when he laid his hand near hers, her 
 weak nerveless fingers closed round his, and would 
 not let him go. 
 
 The nursemaid seemed a stupid, dull sort of girl, 
 and in answer to Dick's questions only grinned and 
 scraped a heap of sand with her clumsy feet. 
 
 They must have been there a quarter of an hour, 
 and Dick was still holding the child's hand and say- 
 ing at intervals, " Poor little Ellen poor child ! " 
 when a gentleman, passing along the top of the 
 beach, stopped and looked at them. He looked like 
 a doctor, and seemed to be in a hurry, but he turned 
 and came down the beach towards them.
 
 212 TIP CAT. 
 
 " I suppose you know," he said to Dick, " that 
 this little girl has had scarlet fever, and that her 
 sister is lying ill of it now in that house ? You 
 should not let those children be with her. It is so 
 terribly infectious." 
 
 And then he hurried away, leaving Dick hardly 
 taking in the full meaning of what he had said for 
 the first minute. He had fortunately never been 
 much in the way of illness, especially infectious ill- 
 ness ; but, of course, he knew that scarlet fever was 
 infectious, and that it meant danger for Letty and 
 Sybil ; and, drawing away his hand from Ellen's, his 
 first impulse was to catch his two little sisters up in 
 his arnjs and hurry away as quickly as possible, but 
 Ellen's weak, wailing cry began directly he turned 
 away, and he could not find it in his heart to leave 
 her. 
 
 What could he do ? He called the children to 
 some distance from the carriage, and bid them put 
 on their shoes and stockings as quick as they could. 
 
 "It's not time to go yet," pleaded Letty; "and 
 we did so want to see the waves knock down our 
 bridge." 
 
 " I want you to do something for brother Dick's 
 sake," he said, and his voice was so grave that Letty
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 213 
 
 said no more, but began that difficult task of pulling 
 stockings on wet feet as quickly as she could. 
 
 " I want you and Sybil to go steadily along the 
 esplanade, past the hotel and the pier, and straight 
 to the railway station. You know where it is, don't 
 you ? And go into the waiting-room and stay there 
 till I come. My darlings, I am so sorry, but it can't 
 be helped." 
 
 " May we say good-by to Ellen ? " 
 
 " No, no ! " he said, with a shudder. " I will say 
 it for you. I want you to go directly." 
 
 He stood watching the two little backs as they 
 plodded rather drearily away hand-in-hand along the 
 beach. He was almost afraid that Sybil was cry- 
 ing, and he had seen Letty's lip tremble as they 
 turned to go ; but the cry of " Dick, where are you 
 gone?" from the carriage called him back and he 
 took up his place again by Ellen's side. Every 
 moment that he sat there he realised more fully the 
 danger that the children had run, and felt more in- 
 dignant at Aunt Maria for exposing them to such a 
 risk; blaming himself all the time for not being 
 quicker to guess that it was fever that had made 
 such a wreck of his little cousin. 
 
 It seemed to him a long time that he sat there,
 
 214 TIP CAT, 
 
 but it was really only a few minutes, when Aunt 
 Maria appeared again from the house, and Dick 
 rose to meet her with a world of reproach in his face. 
 
 But she had no eyes but for the child. " We 
 must bring her in at once," she said. " She has 
 been out too long." 
 
 Dick drew back. How could she be so selfish, 
 even in her great trouble ? But, as they began to 
 move the carriage, the clumsiness of the servant and 
 the over-anxiety of the mother made it shake and 
 rock, and a moan of suffering from the child called 
 him back. 
 
 " Let me do it," he said ; " I will steady it." And 
 he took the carriage carefully up the beach, and 
 when they reached the house he lifted the poor, little 
 light figure from the carriage and carried her into 
 the house in his strong arms. 
 
 The child seemed only half conscious by this 
 time, but she murmured his name, as he put her into 
 the nurse's arms, as if she would have thanked him. 
 
 He got no other thanks. Aunt Maria was hurry- 
 ing by him as he went out into the passage, without 
 even saying good-by ; but he stopped her. 
 
 " You should have told me " he said. " You 
 should have warned me of the infection."
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 215 
 
 " I didn't know you would be afraid," she an- 
 swered. 
 
 " It was not for myself," he went on : " but I have 
 nothing in the world left me but Sybil and Letty, and 
 if any harm happened to them I could never forgive 
 you." 
 
 " Don't be hard on me, Dick," she said, in a strange, 
 hard, shrill voice. " Don't be hard. Grace is dy- 
 ing my last baby, you know, Dick, my pretty little 
 Grace." 
 
 And then she was gone, and Dick passed out into 
 the August sunshine from the dark passage, which 
 seemed the very shadow of death. 
 
 He had half an hour before the train, and that 
 must be devoted to disinfecting as well as he knew 
 how. How he wished he had paid more attention to 
 the subject attended ambulance lectures, or listened 
 when scientific friends held forth ; but he had only 
 his own reason to guide him, and that led him to 
 walk quickly along the beach where the sea-breeze 
 blew freshest, and, when he was some way from the 
 esplanade, take off his coat and wash face and hands 
 in the sea-water. This was all he could think of or 
 had time to do, for he had yet to pay the hotel bill, 
 and fetch their bags and get to the station, to relieve
 
 2l6 TIP CAT. 
 
 the anxiety of the two little sisters, who were watch- 
 ing for him from the waiting-room door, getting more 
 and more large-eyed and terrified as the people began 
 to collect and crowd the station. 
 
 They flew to meet Dick as soon as they caught a 
 glimpse of him, but he would not let them touch him 
 even now, but put them into a carriage with some 
 ladies, and he himself got into a smoking carriage, 
 and stoically endured fumes of bad tobacco and con- 
 versation to match, till they reached the station for 
 Slowmill ; and then again he put them into a fly and 
 mounted himself on the box, and only allowed him- 
 self to feel fit to touch them when they reached the 
 Ricketts', and he lifted Sybil out fast asleep and 
 carried her in, even then feeling a qualm as he thought 
 of the last child he had carried, and how Ellen's head 
 had rested on his arm just where Sybil's lay. 
 
 " What a fidgety old hen I am getting," he told 
 himself, " with my two little chicks."
 
 " TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 217 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 "TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 
 
 IT had been a wet day, but the weather was clear- 
 ing towards the evening, and the heavy grey clouds 
 were rolling away into the west, burying the sunset 
 in their great, soft masses, but leaving a clear, pearly 
 reach of sky in the east, with just a tinge of pink 
 from the invisible sunset. 
 
 There had been a good deal of rain that week since 
 Bank-holiday, which had mterfered considerably with 
 harvest operations in various parts of the country ; 
 but as most of the land round Slowmill was pasture, 
 the farmers did not much care, though, of course, 
 they grumbled quite as much as if all their hopes 
 were centred on the wheat. 
 
 Tip Cat had come out to stretch himself that even- 
 ing, and was leaning on the low wall in front of the 
 house, with Kaiser as usual by his side. That week's
 
 218 TIP CAT. 
 
 I 
 
 rain had put an end to the summer, which had held 
 her own bravely till then, but now autumn reigned in 
 her stead, and had laid his Midas hand already on 
 the chestnuts here and there, turning them to gold. 
 
 Tip Cat's thoughts as he stood there were 
 carried back more than five-and-twenty years, to a 
 garden with a great horse-chestnut tree, standing on 
 a lawn which it littered with its bright yellow leaves, 
 while it filled with mock sunshine the bow windows 
 of a pretty country house. 
 
 It was the vicarage house where he had been a 
 pupil before he went to Oxford, and under the chest- 
 nut, before his mind's eye, stood Letty Vane, the 
 vicar's only daughter, holding a great yellow fan-leaf 
 in her hand as she talked to him. They were great 
 friends, though he was only a great clumsy hob- 
 bledehoy, and she all that was beautiful and grace- 
 ful and fair. 
 
 She had come out into the garden to find him, to 
 ask him to do her some trifling service to post a 
 letter or cut a pencil so small that he had forgotten 
 what it was. 
 
 " I always come to you when I want anything done," 
 she said, " dear old Tip Cat ; I don't know what I 
 shall do without you."
 
 "TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 219 
 
 And then he had stammered out something about 
 being always ready to do anything she wanted. 
 
 " Shall you ? " she asked with a smile and a little 
 sigh, as if with a presentiment of coming trouble. 
 " But what if you are at the other end of the world ? " 
 
 " I would come," he answered, " if you wanted me, 
 even from another world." 
 
 " Silly boy," she said, and stroked his cheek with 
 the chestnut leaf, till he caught her hand in his. 
 
 "Will you promise," he asked, " that you will al- 
 ways come to me if you want anything done, or are 
 in any difficulty or trouble ? " 
 
 " Of course I will," she answered. " I shall come, 
 perhaps when you least expect it, and say, ' Tip Cat, 
 remember your promise." 
 
 It was more than half a joke, and it ended in a 
 laugh and a race across the garden to the filbert 
 walk, and a merry cracking of nuts and talking non- 
 sense, but under it all there was a seriousness and a 
 meaning which they both of them felt and remem- 
 bered. 
 
 Years had passed* since then, and Letty had 
 married, and gone to India and died, and had never 
 reminded him of his promise. She had not been 
 false to him, though she had spoilt his life, for she
 
 220 'TIP CAT. 
 
 had never thought of him but as a boy and a brother 
 while he had loved her with the strong lasting love 
 of a man. In the long years of gnawing regret and 
 weary longing that had followed, he had sometimes 
 thought that if he could have done something, suf- 
 fered something, comforted or helped her in any way 
 he could have endured the loss better, but all possi- 
 bility of this was at an end, for she was in her grave, 
 and needed no help or comfort from him. How 
 vividly that scene in the vicarage garden came back 
 to him that evening ! That soft sighing of the trees 
 might be her voice, that leaf, that came fluttering 
 down, might have dropped from her hand, if he 
 closed his eyes he could fancy she was at his side, 
 saying, "Tip Cat, remember your promise." 
 
 But as he stood with closed eyes picturing that 
 scene, some one was, indeed, standing close by him, 
 some one, whose footsteps he had not heard, though 
 they were not as light and buoyant as they used to 
 be, some one looking up at him with great sad eyes, 
 some one, as strange chance would have it, with a 
 big chestnut fan-leaf in her hand. 
 
 Could it be Letty Vane come from another world 
 to claim his promise ? Tip Cat wondered for a mo- 
 ment, as he opened his eyes and looked down into
 
 "TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE:' 221 
 
 a face so strangely like his dead love's, and heard a 
 voice with the same soft tone say, " Tip Cat, we're 
 in such trouble." And then he knew that she*had 
 sent her little girl to claim his promise. 
 
 " We're in such trouble, Tip Cat ! Sybil is ill? 
 and Dick can't go to the office, so he won't have 
 no money on Saturday, and he wants to send me 
 away to Uncle Tom, and I can't go away and leave 
 him, and Sybil ill " 
 
 " What's the matter with her ? " 
 
 " Dick says it's scarlet fever, and he's sent for the 
 doctor but he hasn't come, and her head's awful bad, 
 and so is her throat, and sometimes she don't know 
 me and thinks I'm somebody else. Tip Cat," Letty 
 whispered, clinging to his arm which was round her, 
 ".do you think Sybil is going to die ? You won't let 
 her, will you ? I can't do without her, and she's so 
 little, you know, too little to die." 
 
 Tip Cat held the trembling little thing close in 
 his great, strong arms, as if he would protect her by 
 main force from trouble or from death itself. 
 
 " Who is with her ? " 
 
 " Only Dick. Mrs. Ricketts is bad with the rheu- 
 matics, and she can't do nothing hardly, and she 
 cries and shakes her head when I speak to her, and
 
 222 TIP CAT. 
 
 Ricketts is afraid that the people at the mill will 
 find out that she's ill, and not let him go to his work, 
 and he wanted Dick not to send for the doctor, as 
 he says they make such a fuss nowadays about things 
 being catching, and Dick thinks that perhaps he did 
 not give his message, as Dr. Lee hasn't come all 
 day." 
 
 " We'll go and fetch him," said Tip Cat. While 
 Letty had been talking his mind had been busy 
 forming a plan of action, and, once formed, he was 
 not slow to carry it out. Five minutes were enough 
 to harness the quick-trotting bay mare into the dog- 
 cart, principally with his own hands, while he gave 
 some clear, sharp, precise directions to the corporal, 
 which made that old soldier open his eyes in amaze- 
 ment, though he was far too well disciplined to say 
 a word or do anything but obey. 
 
 Letty, not being so well drilled, altogether refused 
 to stay with the corporal, as Tip Cat at first pro-' 
 posed, and broke into such an agony of tears and 
 sobs that Tip Cat lifted her himself into the dog-cart 
 and wrapped her up in a plaid, for night was coming 
 on and the air was damp and chill, and drove 
 off without another word, rattling along the road 
 and over the stony streets of Slowmill at a pace
 
 " TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 223 
 
 that made the people run to their doors and 
 windows to see who it could be in such a desperate 
 hurry. 
 
 Dr. Lee had just sat down to supper after a long 
 round among some of his more out-lying patients. 
 He had got very wet, and, having put on his slippers, 
 was not much inclined to sally forth again, even 
 though old Ricketts had been better than Dick sus- 
 pected, and had delivered the message, but in such 
 a modified and guarded manner that Dr. Lee con- 
 cluded that it would be quite time enough to gcrand 
 see the patient next morning. But when Tip Cat 
 arrived, and with a certain accent of command in his 
 voice, and a still more decided look of the same in 
 his strange light eyes, desired him to go without a 
 moment's delay, Dr. Lee called for his boots forth- 
 with, and left his supper unfinished, and climbed as 
 briskly into the dog-cart by Tip Cat's side as if he 
 had had no thought of any other way of passing the 
 evening. 
 
 He had met Tip Cat once or twice in the hunting- 
 field, and had heard a lot of gossip about him from 
 one and another, but this was the first lime he had 
 ever spoken to him, and he felt he was too good a 
 patient to allow to fall into any other doctor's
 
 224 TIP CAT. 
 
 clutches, and that it was quite worth while to oblige 
 him, even at the sacrifice of his supper and night's 
 rest. 
 
 " Hullo ! who's this ? " he asked, as what looked 
 like a bundle of wraps at Tip Cat's side moved and 
 a face looked out at him. 
 
 " It is the other little girl," said Tip Cat, " and I 
 wanted to ask you what we had better do about send- 
 ing her away." 
 
 " Not much good now," was the reply. " Should 
 have been done a week ago from what you tell me. 
 It's too dark to have a look at her. Give me your 
 hand, little woman, if you have such a thing about 
 you under all these wraps. There, there ! never 
 mind, we won't take you away from brother Dick and 
 little sister, never fear ! " 
 
 And then Letty, quite contented, nestled her face 
 against Tip Cat's sleeve and dozed, only indistinctly 
 hearing the men's voices going on above her head, 
 and not heeding what they said. 
 
 Can you fancy, reader, what the past week had 
 been to Dick ? How, the morning after their return, 
 when the children had seemed as bright and well as 
 ever, he had laughed at his own fidgets and fears of 
 the night before ; how, a day or two later, he had
 
 " TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 22$ 
 
 been quite cross with himself for fancying that Sybil 
 was pale, and told himself that if she were not quite 
 as rosy as usual it was the effect of the wet weather, 
 which had prevented them from going out. No 
 doubt it was from the same cause that she was a little 
 bit cross the next morning, and peevish, and cried 
 when Letty accidentally pushed against her ; but 
 when he came home in the evening, and only Letty 
 ran down the wet garden path to meet him, his heart 
 sank as he heard that Sybil had been very sick, and 
 was asleep on the bed. " It's biliousness," Mrs. 
 Ricketts said, " and she'll be all the better to-morrow." 
 But in the night when Dick went in once or twice to 
 see how she was, the child was tossing and turning 
 and talking in her sleep, and was hot and flushed 
 and restless. She seemed better in the morning, 
 but Dick went to the office with a very heavy heart, 
 and annoyed Mr. Burgess by his inattention and care- 
 lessness. 
 
 He found Sybil, when he got home, sitting on the 
 three-legged stool in front of the fire, resting such a 
 heavy little head on Mrs. Ricketts's knee ! and found 
 she had eaten nothing all day, but was thirsty and 
 parched. Dick sat all the evening holding her in 
 his arms, and put her into his bed for the night, and
 
 226 TIP CAT. 
 
 spent most of that leaning over her and listening to 
 her difficult breathing and wandering talk. Happily 
 next day was Sunday and he was not obliged to leave 
 her, but oh ! how long that day seemed ; and still 
 longer the night that followed, for the child was light- 
 headed, and talked such strange baby-nonsense as 
 made Dick's heart ache again. Would the morning 
 never come, and old Ricketts stop snoring in the 
 room below, and begin to stir to go off to his work ? 
 for Dick had by this time no doubt what was the 
 matter, and knew that there was no time to be lost 
 in having a doctor, and that he ought not to go to 
 Mr. Burgess's, even if he could bear to leave Sybil, 
 and that as for what they were to live on or how the 
 doctor was to be paid, it must be left to the future 
 to prove it was no use thinking of that now. 
 
 And then came Ricketts's unwillingness to make 
 the illness known, and his wish to keep it dark, lest 
 the inspector should be down on them, messing about 
 with sulphur and lime and all the rest of it ; and not 
 letting a chap go to his work for six weeks or more, 
 as he did with poor Wilson as pretty nigh starved, 
 along of him and his whimsies. He tried to persuade 
 Dick the child was better, as she was quiet for a bit, 
 lying with her eyes half shut, breathing heavily ; but
 
 "TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 227 
 
 Dick knew better, and at last old Ricketts went off 
 grumbling, with a note from Dick to be left at the 
 office, and a message to Dr. Lee, which Ricketts did 
 not deliver till after the doctor had started for his 
 rounds, and which, when it reached him, would not, 
 as we have seen, have disturbed the doctor from his 
 supper, if it had not been for Tip Cat. 
 
 Then Dick began to fret and worry over Letty, 
 and the danger to her of slipping in and out of the 
 room, and sitting at the foot of the bed watching 
 Sybil's every movement, ready to put back the clothes 
 the fevered child kept throwing off, or to give her 
 some milk when the dry lips moaned for something 
 to drink. If there was only some one to take her 
 up to Uncle Tom ! He could not refuse to find 
 shelter and care somewhere for her ; and once Dick 
 counted out what money he had left, and told Letty 
 to put on her hat and take it to Mrs. Tysoe, and ask 
 her to take her up to London to Uncle Tom's bank ; 
 but Letty, who was usually so obedient and submis- 
 sive to Dick's slightest wish, rebelled now, and cried 
 and sobbed so bitterly that Dick was obliged to give 
 it up, only keeping her as much out of the bedroom 
 as he could. 
 
 As the day wore on, and no doctor came, he began
 
 228 TIPCAT. 
 
 to distrust Ricketts more and more, and when, 
 towards evening, Letty disappeared, he fancied she 
 might have gone to fetch him, and was divided 
 between anxiety for the child alone in the roads in 
 the dusk, and a burning desire that the doctor should 
 come by any means before night. 
 
 Reader, do you know the look of a bedroom in 
 which a man has been acting as nurse ? I mean, of 
 course, ninety-nine men out of a hundred, for here 
 and there you may find a first-rate man-nurse, who 
 can bear comparison with the best of the woman- 
 nurses. They may be loving and anxious, tender and 
 strong, patient and gentle, but they are sure to get 
 the room into a hopeless muddle, as Dick had, when 
 Dr. Lee stood at the door with Tip Cat looking over 
 his shoulder. 
 
 The bedclothes were tumbled and tossed in utter 
 discomfort, the bedstead, which had never stood 
 quite even on its four legs, was propped at one cor- 
 ner by a chair, and another stood near heaped with 
 cups and plates, and the candle-stick with a tallow- 
 candle guttering from the draught from the door and 
 window. A heap of Sybil's clothes lay on the ground 
 near the window, and Dick sat on the bed in his 
 shirt-sleeves, with a pillow on his knees, on which
 
 "TIP CAT, REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE." 229 
 
 the child's head was resting for a minute or two in its 
 restless, feverish tossing and turning. 
 
 There was no doubt that the child was very ill, 
 but it was Dick's face that struck Tip Cat most, it 
 looked so worn and haggard and old and full of care, 
 and Tip Cat turned away as the doctor entered the 
 room and went down into the room below with a 
 bitter feeling of self-reproach, that he had not heard 
 his old love's voice sooner, reminding him of his 
 promise, through this poor young son of hers, and his 
 two little sisters, who had sunk to greater depths of 
 poverty and want than ever he had dreamt of from 
 the merry prattle of the children, who had talked of 
 poverty as a bit of fun, and of their present life as 
 superior in every way to their old one.
 
 230 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 " MOVE her ? " Dick said, in answer to Dr. Lee's 
 words, which he seemed only dimly to understand. 
 " Move her this morning ? Is it to the hospital." 
 
 It was morning, and Dr. Lee was there for the third 
 time. He had gone away after his first visit, and 
 returned in an hour, bringing medicine and a few 
 sick-room comforts for the child, and managing with 
 a little artful arrangement, to introduce some order 
 into the chaotic room. Then he had gone away 
 again, and Sybil must have slept ; certainly Dick had, 
 for suddenly Dr. Lee was standing there again", and 
 saying that at twelve a carriage was coming to move 
 them all away. 
 
 " Tip Cat ? What had he to do with it ? " Dick won- 
 dered. He fancied he had caught a glimpse of some 
 one behind Dr. Lee when he first came, but after- 
 wards he thought it must have been only a fancy, for,
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 231 
 
 with watching and anxiety, he got all sorts of queer 
 notions into his head, and saw sometimes one person, 
 and sometimes another, standing in the little room 
 now Uncle Tom, broad and burly, twisting his eye- 
 glass in his hand ; now Kathie, fair and gentle, to- 
 wards whom he started with a cry of warning against 
 the danger of being there. 
 
 Dr. Lee looked narrowly at the dazed, puzzled 
 look on Dick's face. " I shall have another patient," 
 he thought, " before long, and it's a question if he 
 will be number two or three. It's not a hospital, 
 exactly," he said, " but Mr Cathcart Tip Cat, they 
 call him has offered his house, and went off to 
 Bristol last night to make all arrangements and to 
 get a nurse ; and he'll send a regular ambulance by 
 twelve to move the child." 
 
 " But I can't let him do it," Dick interrupted. 
 " We have no claim on him I hardly know him " 
 
 " Do you want the child to die ? " 
 
 Dick's head sunk. 
 
 " I tell you what it is," the doctor said, " he's the 
 most extraordinary man I ever came across, and this 
 is the biggest piece of generosity I ever heard of, 
 and you'll be the greatest fool in the world if you 
 make a fuss about it. It was the luckiest day of
 
 232 TIP CAT. 
 
 your life when you came to Slowmill, and came across 
 Tip Cat." 
 
 And Dick, as he turned back to Sybil, wondered 
 to himself how what had seemed such trouble and 
 misfortune, could look to any one like good luck, 
 but he offered no further opposition ; and when the 
 carriage came to the door, he obeyed the doctor's 
 directions, and wrapped the child up in blankets, 
 and carried her down and laid her on the cushions 
 in the carriage, and got in after her with Letty, while 
 Dr. Lee mounted on the box with the driver. 
 
 Tip Cat did not appear on the scene at all, nor 
 was he visible when they arrived at Tipton Farm, 
 though as Kaiser's shaggy head was to be seen 
 watching the arrival from one of the windows, it 
 may be concluded that his master was not far off. 
 
 A pleasant-faced, cheerful nurse met them at the 
 door, looking delightfully fresh and unfeverish in her 
 print dress and white apron and cap, and took the 
 bundle of blankets very tenderly in her arms and 
 carried it up stairs to the large, airy bedroom in 
 front, which used to be empty and unfurnished, and 
 had often served as a play-room for the children on 
 a wet day, but was now turned into a sick-room that 
 would have satisfied the most exacting of doctors.
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 233 
 
 Tip Cat would dearly have liked to have filled the 
 room with pretty furniture for the reception of his 
 welcome little guests ; but his own common sense 
 and the doctor had told him that the less furniture 
 there was the better ; so there were no curtains nor 
 carpet, and, besides the two little beds, only just 
 what was immediately necessary for use, and nothing 
 for ornament. 
 
 Tip Cat consoled himself by furnishing Dick's 
 room adjoining, with every comfort modern luxury 
 has invented, though, as subsequent events proved, 
 he had better have kept to the same severe style in 
 both rooms, as very soon those curtains, arm-chair, 
 and sofa had to be dispensed with. 
 
 Tip Cat's greatest difficulty had been about the 
 nurse, for he would have one quite to his mind ; and 
 at such short notice, and at such an early hour in the 
 morning, there was not so much choice as in the 
 matter of chairs and bedsteads. When at last he 
 found one to please him, it was very uncertain if the 
 situation would please her ; and when she reached 
 Tipton Farm and found that she was the only woman 
 about the place, she had half a mind to leave at once. 
 But Ridge was so wonderfully handy and attentive, 
 and Tip Cat ready, at the least suggestion of any-
 
 234 TIP CAT. 
 
 thing wanting, to be off at any hour of the day or 
 night to scour the country to procure it, sparing 
 neither money nor trouble, so that Nurse Esther soon 
 got used to the unusual state of affairs, and, after a 
 time, liked it so well, that she was inclined to think 
 that households composed of women were a mistake. 
 
 She had a nice, pleasant, kind face, and strong, 
 young arms, and a gentle, decided way of doing things, 
 as if she knew what she was about and meant to do 
 it ; and Letty's eyes watched her longingly as she 
 carried Sybil up stairs, and she followed with Dick 
 and saw the airy, orderly room so different from 
 Mrs. Ricketts' and the little white bed, with the 
 cool, fresh pillows and bed clothes, ready to receive 
 the poor, little, feverish body, that had made such a 
 hot, tumbled hay-cock of the bed, where Dick's lov- 
 ing but inexperienced hands could not restore order 
 or comfort. 
 
 But when the door closed and left Dick and Letty 
 outside on the landing, Letty's full little heart over- 
 flowed into bitter sobs and tears. " Oh, Dick, mayn't 
 I be ill, too ? Oh, Dick, I'd like to be ill ! I'd like 
 to be ill, too, with Syby ! " 
 
 Dick, too, was feeling very forlorn, as if his work 
 had been suddenly whisked away out of his hands
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 235 
 
 and he did not know what to be at ; but he gathered 
 Letty up into his arms and sat down on the stairs 
 and tried to comfort her, telling her she should stop 
 with brother Dick and not think of being ill ; but he 
 seemed to have lost his power to console her, and 
 his own head ached so that every sob seemed to send 
 a hot dart through his temples, and he only at last 
 sat holding her in his arms in silent misery, for what- 
 seemed to him quite a long time, but was really only 
 a few minutes, at the end of which time the door re- 
 opened and the nurse's cheerful, homely voice said. 
 
 " Where's my other little one ? The doctor said 
 I might have you both. Where's my little Miss 
 Letty ? " 
 
 And Letty's sobs stopped as if by magic, and her 
 arms left Dick's neck and stretched towards the 
 nurse, as if she had known her all her life. 
 
 " May I be ill, too, with Syby ? " she asked. 
 
 And the nurse answered cheerfully, " To be sure 
 you may, and get well with Syby, too. " 
 
 But Letty did not forget Dick, for as she went in, 
 clinging round Nurse Esther's waist with the nurse's 
 arm round her neck, Dick heard her say, " But mayn't 
 Dick come too ? poor Dick ! and be ill with me and 
 Syby ? He don't never like to be away from us."
 
 236 TIP CAT. 
 
 " Oh, I daresay he will come too by and by ; never 
 you mind." 
 
 And then the door closed and Dick was left still 
 sitting on the stairs outside jesting his head in his 
 hands, feeling as if he had not energy to move ox 
 even think. 
 
 Here Dr. Lee found him a few minutes later when 
 he came up stairs, and he took him down and made 
 him eat and drink something, which Dick did in a 
 listless, mechanical way, doing just as he was told, 
 and then again at the doctor's suggestion, he went 
 up to the comfortable bed-room that had been pre- 
 pared for him, and, hardly noticing the comfort of 
 his surroundings, threw himself on the bed and fell 
 into a heavy, dreamless sleep. 
 
 He must have slept for some hours, for when he 
 woke the crimson, level rays of the sunset were com- 
 ing in through the window and falling full on a pic- 
 ture that was hung over the bed, and Dick's waking 
 eyes fixed themselves on this picture with a strange 
 sort of confused wonder. How had that picture 
 found its way from the old dressing case and into 
 that wide mounting and carved ebony frame ? It 
 used to be framed with pearls, he said to himself, in 
 the dreamy half-waking, and then all at once the face,
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 237 
 
 that was so like Letty's, woke him with a start to 
 the consciousness of the present and of Letty and 
 Sybil, and he flung himself off the bed and stood 
 looking round, giddy and confused, listening for any 
 sounds from the next room, where Letty had chosen 
 to be "ill too with Syby," and quite forgot the 
 strangeness, that over the bed in Tip Cat's room 
 hung the portrait of his own young mother, smiling, 
 in all her girlish grace and sweetness, as she had 
 smiled from the circle of pearls of which he had rob- 
 bed her for the little ones' sake. 
 
 Some one must have been into the room while he 
 slept, for a bath had been prepared for him and clean 
 linen laid out, suggestive of old times when Jenkins 
 used to be proud to valet his young master, and Dick 
 felt more like his old self when he had bathed and 
 changed his clothes ; and just as he was ready, the 
 doctor knocked at the door and came in. 
 
 "Well," he said, "you look pounds better for your 
 nap. I've just come in again to see the little girls. I 
 don't think if I were you I would go in just now ; 
 they have a first-rate nurse, and she'll do all she 
 can for them, and seeing you may upset them, for 
 little Miss Letty's light-headed." 
 
 There was something in his tone that made Dick
 
 238 TIPCAT. 
 
 turn sharply and look into his face. " Are they very 
 bad ? " he said. " Do you think they will not get 
 well ? " 
 
 The doctor turned away to avoid the eager ques- 
 tioning of Dick's terrified eyes, which would not 
 allow of any evasion as long as they met the 
 doctor's. 
 
 " Oh ! we won't give up hope," he said ; " but they 
 are delicate children. I would not go in if I were 
 you." 
 
 But the words were not out of his lips before Dick 
 had opened the door of the sick room and gone in. 
 Not go to them ? Keep away ? Why, it was only a 
 few minutes ago he had heard Letty's little voice say, 
 4< He don't never like to be away from us ; " and if 
 they were going to die, surely he must go with them 
 as far as he could, and hold their little hands in 
 death's darkness as he had so often done when night 
 came on and the candles were not lighted, and 
 childish terrors, real or assumed, filled the little ones' 
 minds. If they were going down into that cold river, 
 surely they would want him to help them. Ah, why 
 could he not carry them both over in his arms, as he 
 had so often done across the brooks and streams 
 round Slowmill, so that they should all reach that
 
 TO THE RESCUE. 239 
 
 other side safely together ? Ah, that other side ! If 
 they were going this long journey, surely they must 
 want brother Dick to see them off and say good-bye. 
 Ah, what a world of good-byes this was ! 
 
 As he opened the door he heard Letty's voice talk- 
 ing quick and eagerly ; but he did not need to look 
 at the hot, flushed face and bright, restless eyes, or 
 even to hear the words she said, to know that it was 
 the talk of delirium. 
 
 Sybil lay still, unnaturally still, Dick thought, who 
 had seen her tossing and turning, never quiet for five 
 minutes together for days. In the dim light of the 
 room, for the sun had set by now, the child's face 
 looked ghastly white and set, and the bed-clothes 
 seemed to fall in those motionless, sculpture-like, 
 solemn folds as they do over the dead. 
 
 Dick turned with a sick heart to the other bed. 
 Here, at any rate, there was life. The nurse was at 
 Letty's side, trying to sooth her excitement and keep __ 
 the clothes over her, but she drew back as Dick ap- 
 proached, and gave up her place to him. 
 
 " She has been asking for you," she said, " and I 
 told her you were asleep." 
 
 " You should have called me at once," he said 
 quite sharply. " You must always send for me directly
 
 240 TIP CAT. 
 
 if they want me and I am not in the room. Here I 
 am, Letty ; do you want brother Dick ? " 
 
 " Yes, I want Dick," Letty said ; " but he's asleep. 
 Poor Dick ! he's tired and gone to sleep. Hush, you 
 mustn't wake him. He'll come when he wakes. It's 
 Dick I want," went on the poor, little, thick voice, 
 while those great, bright, unrecognising eyes looked 
 into Dick's face, and the little, burning hands pushed 
 him feebly away. " I don't want nobody but Dick, 
 and he's asleep. Go away, please ; I want Dick." 
 
 " She does not know me," said poor Dick, turning 
 away with a sob.
 
 POOR DICK. 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 POOR DICK. 
 
 IT was not very long, as Dr. Lee had thought, be- 
 fore he had another patient at Tipton Farm. That 
 evening, as Dick sat down stairs with Tip Cat, smok- 
 ing and listening for any movement in the room above, 
 a messenger from the town brought up a letter that 
 had come to Mr. Burgess's for Dick. It bore a heavy, 
 black edge, and the writing was Uncle Tom's. 
 
 The whole world seemed edged with black to Dick 
 just then, and he opened it and glanced through the 
 contents, as if it were the most natural thing in the 
 world, that his two little cousins should both be dead, 
 and their mother nearly out of her mind with despair, 
 and as for Uncle Tom's really heart-felt words of re- 
 gret for all that had passed between him and Dick 
 and the little girls, and his acknowledgment that he
 
 242 TIP CAT. 
 
 had acted neither justly nor generously by them, and 
 his assurances that things should be very different, if 
 they would come back to London and let bygones 
 be bygones, Dick read them through with indiffer- 
 ence, as something in which he had no concern, 
 something that was ages too late to do any good. 
 
 Even the almost illegible words scrawled at the 
 bottom in Aunt Maria's writing, " Forgive me, Dick," 
 hardly moved his dulled feelings even to pity. He 
 had said, when last they met at Sandyshore, " if any 
 harm happened to the children, I could never forgive 
 you," but now the grievous harm had happened, the 
 aching in his head and heart seemed to leave no room 
 for anger against the cause of it, or for active for- 
 giveness. 
 
 " No bad news, I hope," Tip Cat said as he laid 
 down the letter. He felt very constrained in Dick's 
 company, having been for years unused to the society 
 of his equals, and being, moreover, troubled and em- 
 barrassed by Dick's gratitude ; a - d having his heart 
 full of sorrow and liking for the young fellow, who 
 every moment by some look or tone or movement re- 
 called the dead mother, even more than little Letty, 
 whose face actually more closely resembled her. He 
 wanted to tell Dick about his mother and explain to
 
 POOR DICK. 243 
 
 him that anything he could do for his dead love's chil- 
 dren (and the most he could do seemed infinitely lit- 
 tle) was such a relief and happiness to his own heart, 
 that the gratitude should be all on his side, but he 
 did not know how to begin, and conversation on in- 
 different matters languished and easily dropped into 
 silence. " No bad news, I hope ? " Tip Cat said, 
 when the letter came, and Dick answered, " Oh, no, 
 not at all, thank you," as he laid the letter down, and 
 then remembered himself. " Yes that is, very bad 
 news for my uncle and aunt ; they have lost both their 
 little girls." 
 
 " Have they any others ? " 
 
 " No, there were only those two, Ellen and Grace." 
 
 " Bad job ! " said Tip Cat. 
 
 " Yes, they're terribly cut up. They want us to 
 go back to London, but I must write and tell them 
 it's too late. If he'd written a month ago, we might 
 have gone, and it might have saved the children, but 
 now," Dick went on with such a dreary look of misery 
 in his eyes, that Tip Cat's heart ached to see it, " I 
 couldn't go without the children ; go back just as if 
 nothing had happened, and be rich and comfortable, 
 and all that, without Letty and Sybil." 
 
 Tip Cat said nothing, but there was something sym-
 
 244 TIP CAT. 
 
 pathetic in his strange, light eyes that encouraged 
 Dick to go and pour out some of the trouble that was 
 weighing on his heart, only, as he talked, strange 
 confusions .crept in, names that Tip Cat had never 
 heard before, Kathie Dumbleton's among the num- 
 ber. 
 
 " Have I been talking nonsense ? " Dick said, sud- 
 denly pulling himself up. " My head feels so funny 
 and confused. I think I'll go up and see how 
 they're getting on." 
 
 But as he rose to go he turned so giddy, that he 
 had to catch at the back of a chair, to keep himself 
 from falling. 
 
 " Hullo ! " he said, " what's wrong with me ? " 
 
 He stood a minute, and then made a second effort ; 
 but this time Tip Cat caught him, and landed him 
 safely in a chair. 
 
 " I feel awfully queer," he said ; " I wonder if 
 I'm going to be ill ? I say ! " he went on, quickly, 
 holding his head in both hands, as if he were trying to 
 keep back the deadly giddiness for a minute to speak 
 plainly, " it will be a horrid bother for you, and I'm 
 awfully sorry for you ; but if I'm ill, you'd better 
 write and let Uncle Tom know. There's his letter 
 with the address, and he ought to see after the fune-
 
 POOR DICK. 245 
 
 rals, you know and oh ! " said Dick, " if it wasn't 
 such a bother for you, when you've been so kind 
 already, it seems just the very best thing that we 
 should all of us go together over," he went on, his 
 voice getting lower and more indistinct, " to the 
 other side." 
 
 And then he fell forward against Tip Cat, who 
 took him in his great, strong arms and carried him 
 up-stairs~ with such a loving, tender care, as if it 
 might have been Letty herself of long ago come to 
 claim his promise. 
 
 For many days Dick lay between life and death, 
 and so near death sometimes, that Dr. Lee was fain 
 to give up the battle ; and he always maintained 
 that it was nothing but Tip Cat's unwearied nursing 
 that saved Dick's life, for Tip Cat was one of those 
 exceptional born nurses of whom I have spoken be- 
 fore never sleeping, nor wearying, nor despairing ; 
 and Ridge was as invaluable outside the sick-room 
 as Tip Cat was in it, having everything that was 
 wanted ready punctually to a second, without any 
 noise or bustle, or slamming doors, or scolding voices. 
 And now and then Nurse Esther sat by Dick's bed- 
 side ; but this was not often, for Tip Cat was jealous 
 of his rights, and seemed above the considerations
 
 246 TIP CAT. 
 
 of rest and food, that are so necessary for mortals 
 generally. 
 
 When Dick first came back to dim, indistinct con- 
 sciousness, the first thing he noticed, as he had done 
 after his nap that first afternoon, was the picture on 
 the wall above the bed; but he was too weak to 
 think or wonder about it, and only lay watching it in 
 that strange, dead calm of utter prostration. 
 
 It also seemed to him natural, and he did not 
 wonder that Tip Cat should be always at his side, 
 ready to raise him or to shift his pillows, or to give 
 him some drink ; he had got used to that even in his 
 unconscious fever and delirium, and Tip Cat seemed 
 to know without a word what he wanted, and to be 
 able to do it just right. 
 
 There seemed no measure of time to Dick just 
 then ; sometimes it was dark, with the shaded lamp 
 burning on the table, sometimes there was light 
 coming from the window ; but night and day seemed 
 melted together in a strange, vague way, as undefined 
 as the furniture in the room, or the faces that came 
 now and then to the side of his bed. 
 
 But gradually things began to get more distinct, 
 and his mind grew slowly to assert itself, and memory 
 began weaving the woolly past into shape, and Tip
 
 POOR DICK. 247 
 
 Cat noticed a new look in Dick's eyes as they fol- 
 lowed him about the room. There was a ques- 
 tion in them, and Tip Cat longed to answer it, only 
 he did not feel sure how much Dick remembered, 
 or how much it might be safe to tell him. But pres- 
 ently the question came to the lips that had been so 
 silent since the wild, constant talk of delirium had 
 ceased. 
 
 " Have I been ill long ? " so low that only a 
 mother or Tip Cat would have heard the words. 
 
 " Three weeks to day." 
 
 " So long ? " He said no more after that but lay 
 so still with his eyes closed that Tip Cat thought he 
 was asleep, till he saw two tears force their way be- 
 tween the closed lids and roll down the white, 119!- 
 low cheeks. 
 
 Three weeks ! they were all to have gone together 
 and the little ones had to go alone into all the strange- 
 ness of the other side, without brother Dick. If 
 he might only have gone first, just to show them 
 that there was not so much to be frightened at after 
 all! And they were such frightened little things, 
 especially Letty, and they had to go without him. 
 It did seem hard ! 
 
 He was worse that night, more feverish and a little
 
 248 TIPCAT. 
 
 light-headed again, repeating that he must go, he 
 must go the children were waiting for him. But 
 after this relapse he steadily improved, gaining a 
 little strength every day, sleeping a little better, able 
 to take nourishment more easily. But as he grew 
 stronger, he became more irritable and impatient a 
 sure sign, Dr. Lee declared, of approaching convales- 
 cence ; but Tip Cat thought there was another cause. 
 
 It was after Dr. Lee's visits that he was the most 
 gloomy and out of temper, especially when that 
 gentleman assumed the cheerful, rousing manner 
 that was so effective sometimes with morbid patients, 
 and assured him that he was ever so much better 
 and would soon be eating his mutton-chop and walk- 
 ing his six miles a day again. 
 
 " Why does he come here telling a pack of lies ? " 
 Dick asked angrily one day. " Does he think I'm 
 a nervous woman and afraid of the truth ? " 
 
 Dick seemed to watch grudgingly his own improve- 
 ment, resenting the notion that he had slept soundly, 
 and denying quite fiercely the suggestion that he was 
 hungry. He tried to think himself as helpless as 
 ever, and ignored, as much as he could, the fact that 
 he could raise and move himself better and more 
 easily every day.
 
 POOR DICK. 249 
 
 It was not only the fractiousness of convalescence, 
 Tip Cat felt sure, but something deeper-rooted. 
 
 One day, as Dick lay with that settled look of 
 gloom on his face, Tip Cat offered to read him some- 
 thing, and Dick drew out from under his pillow a 
 little, old prayer book, that had belonged to his 
 mother. It had been sent home after she died, and 
 Dick had always kept it with him, and it had been 
 in his pocket the night he was taken ill, and Tip Cat 
 had found it there, and had put it on the table by 
 the bedside, and from there it had been taken by 
 Dick one restless, weary night, and he had slept with 
 his cheek resting against it, as if the worn, brown 
 cover conveyed some mother's comforting to him. 
 
 Now he put it in Tip Cat's hand, who took it rev- 
 erently, for traced in pale ink in the beginning was 
 the name that was written on his heart in living 
 letters of love. There were some rose leaves pressed 
 between the pages, rose leaves that he would have 
 loved to think had been placed there by his dead 
 love's hands, but they were too fresh for that, for not 
 three months ago they had been blooming in the 
 gardens of Tipton Grange, sweet and fragrant under 
 the eyes of two young lovers. 
 
 " Read," said Dick. And Tip Cat read where
 
 250 TIPCAT. 
 
 he opened, a psalm, some prayers, a parable ; and 
 then there was silence, for his heart was so full of 
 his old love that he had almost forgotten Dick till 
 he spoke. " Tip Cat, do you think I am going to get 
 well ? " 
 
 There was an eagerness in his voice that might 
 have shown the longing for life that is so strong in 
 most people. 
 
 " Yes, thank God, I do." 
 
 " But why should I ? What can I do ? I've 
 made such a shocking mess of it and I haven't the 
 heart to try again, and all by myself too ! all by my- 
 self, without the little ones without little Letty and 
 Sybil ! " 
 
 His voice was very weak and uncertain yet, and it 
 kept breaking and choking with sobs that he was not 
 strong enough to suppress, though he struggled man- 
 fully, swallowing the sobs, dashing away the hot 
 tears, grasping and twisting the bed-clothes in his 
 hands, in his strong wrestling with the emotion 
 that overpowered him. Tip Cat was watching him 
 with a troubled, puzzled, anxious look at first ; but, 
 by degrees, a light seemed to break on him and clear 
 up all the perplexity in his eyes, and then he tried 
 several times to interrupt Dick with some eager
 
 POOR DICK. 251 
 
 words of consolation or explanation ; but Dick gave 
 no heed, for what words could comfort him under 
 this heavy burden of life without his little sisters, 
 and presently Tip Cat got up and went away. 
 
 Dick hardly noticed that he had gone ; but, by 
 and by, as his agitation quieted down, the silence of 
 the room and of the whole house struck on him pain- 
 fully. The blind was up, and through the window 
 he could see the yellow leaves of a lime tree, drop- 
 ping, dropping through the damp, misty air. The 
 closing of a door in a distant part of the house and 
 a voice caught his ear, and set him suddenly listen- 
 ing, raised on his elbow, with a beating heart and 
 held breath, but he dropped back again in a moment 
 with a groan, for what ear, however keen and loving, 
 can hear voices from beyond the grave ? And as 
 far as those dear, young voices were concerned, Dick 
 knew his life must go silent till his death. Where 
 had they laid them ? Who stood by when their last 
 bedtime came ? How they used to cling about 
 him when they said good night, and make him pro- 
 mise, " ever so faithful," to come and see them after 
 they were in bed, and how often when he came, for 
 he always kept that promise, they were both asleep in 
 that rosy, happy, light sleep of childhood, that is as
 
 252 TIP CAT. 
 
 different to manhood's heavy, weary slumber as a 
 midsummer night, full of soft starlight and dewy 
 fragrance, to the cold, black bitterness of winter. 
 
 Again a sound in the distance startled him ; but 
 this time he would not be deceived ; he drew up 
 the bed-clothes over eyes and ears, and tried to court 
 sleep with that set determination which is the surest 
 way of driving that coy visitor away. 
 
 But if he did not succeed in sleeping, he did in 
 closing his ears to outside sounds, for the door 
 opened without his hearing it, and some one came 
 to the side of the bed and laid something at his side, 
 something that disentangled itself from the great 
 knitted shawl in which it was wrapped, and pulled 
 down the clothes from Dick's unwilling face with 
 hands that were warm, living flesh and blood, though 
 as thin and white as flesh and blood could be, and 
 pressed a soft, little cheek against Dick's saying, in 
 Letty's sweet, little voice, " Make room for me, 
 Dick, for Sybil wants to come too." And there 
 was Sybil jumping out of Tip Cat's arms on to the bed, 
 with that queer, little chuckle of satisfaction which 
 Dick knew so well, and with nearly as much life 
 and bright energy and brisk enjoyment as ever. 
 
 " It was all that fool of a doctor," said Tip Cat, a
 
 POOR DICK. 253 
 
 few minutes later, sitting at the end of the bed, with 
 tears in his light eyes rather dimming the pleasing 
 sight of three heads on Dick's pillow, where one had 
 lain so long alone, and four arms twined so tightly 
 round Dick's neck that any one else might well have 
 cried for mercy in the fear of suffocation. " It was 
 that idiot Lee ; he said we must not mention the 
 children because you were always raving about them 
 in your delirium, and he had them moved to the 
 other end of the house, so that you should not hear 
 a sound. And I was a bigger fool than he was," 
 went on Tip Cat, " because I knew he was wrong all 
 along, and hadn't wit enough to snap my fingers in 
 his face."
 
 254 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 GETTING WELL. 
 
 AFTER all, Dick came to the conclusion, it is very 
 pleasant getting well, and the world is very beautiful, 
 and life has a good many bright days even for poor 
 fellows who cannot marry their lady loves, and who 
 have to work hard for their livings. The very idea 
 of work even is not unpleasant when head and hands 
 are getting stronger every day, and little active im- 
 pulses and energies make themselves felt, that have 
 lain dormant through fever and weakness ; not im- 
 mediate work perhaps, for it is still pleasant to lie 
 on the sofa in that sunny bow window and be petted 
 and waited on by Tip Cat and Ridge and Nurse 
 Esther and Sybil ; for Letty needs almost more pet- 
 ting and waiting on than Dick, being still a very 
 transparent, little shadow. 
 
 They are no longer at Tipton Farm, but at Tor- 
 quay, and it is the end of October, though it might
 
 GETTING WELL. 255 
 
 be August to judge from the warm sunshine pouring 
 in at the window, and the bright blue of the bay, 
 and the rich green that clothes the slopes, and only 
 here and there a patch of red and russet foliage be- 
 trays the fact that winter is near. The window is 
 open and Kaiser sits outside on the balcony in dig- 
 nified ugliness, blinking in the sun and watching 
 the people mounting the hill to the church above, 
 from whence the sound of a pleasantly-toned bell is 
 calling to afternoon service. 
 
 Dick is alone with the children, for Tip Cat is 
 out, and Nurse and Ridge are among the groups of 
 people climbing the hill, watched by Kaiser, and by 
 Sybil too, from the window. Ridge and the nurse 
 are great friends by this time, all the greater for 
 their mutual distrust at first ; and Ridge has grown 
 quite young again in her society, and smartens him- 
 self up and looks quite soldierly and imposing, and 
 the little girls have made a plan that Ridge and nurse 
 shall marry and live in the lodge at Tipton Grange, 
 instead of that cross, old woman in spectacles, who 
 threw stones at Kaiser because he went after her cat. 
 
 Nurse listens to these arrangements with a smile ? 
 and tells them not to talk such rubbish, and that 
 Ridge is old enough to be her grandfather, but owns,
 
 256 TIP CAT. 
 
 when much pressed, that he is still a fine man, and 
 has more notion of what he's about than half the 
 young men one meets. 
 
 Dick had been reading to the children out of 
 their mother's Prayer Book, after which followed an 
 ineffectual search on Letty and Sybil's part in the 
 Bible for the story of " Beauty and the Beast," which 
 they both stoutly maintained was to be found there. 
 Dick was much puzzled as to what could have given 
 rise to this idea, but when a Bible with an Apocrypha 
 was found, he was able to trace it to " Bel and the 
 Dragon," the name of which certainly sounded pro- 
 mising, but which was very disappointing on further 
 examination. 
 
 This rather exhausted their ardor of Biblical re- 
 search, and Sybil remembered that it must be quite 
 time for Letty and Dick to take their medicine. 
 Nurse Esther having intrusted her with the charge 
 of administering it. She had already twice tried to 
 persuade Dick that the proper time had arrived, and 
 had shaken the bottle so vigorously that its con- 
 tents were more than half froth, and had done a good 
 deal of scrutinising the medicine glass with one eye 
 shut, to master the exact line to which the medicine 
 was to reach.
 
 GETTING WELL. 257 
 
 Now, as they were within about half an hour of 
 the right time, Dick agreed to take the medicine, 
 and Sybil at once assumed the most important and 
 dignified airs, which Letty perhaps a little bit re- 
 sented, as she would have loved to do the same, but 
 which Dick encouraged by pretending extreme dis- 
 gust and horror of the medicine, intreating piteously 
 to be allowed to leave it or at any rate to have a 
 piece of sugar to take the taste out of his mouth, 
 and at last swallowing it with such dreadful grimaces, 
 that Sybil was obliged to taste it herself to see if it 
 really were so bad, and then to fetch lumps of sugar 
 for the whole party, Kaiser included, to console 
 them. 
 
 She found it rather dull after this excitement was 
 over, but remembered that Nurse Esther always 
 washed the medicine glass after it was used, so went 
 bustling off to do it, coming back after a long time, 
 with the front of her frock rather damp and her 
 fingers very cold and pink results which such a 
 small matter as the washing of one medicine glass 
 seemed hardly sufficient to account for. 
 
 Meanwhile Dick and Letty were having a quiet, 
 little talk by themselves. 
 
 " Dick, shall we always live with Tip Cat now ? "
 
 2$8 TIP CAT. 
 
 " Oh no, Letty ; why should we ? " 
 
 " Nurse said she thought we should, and so did 
 Ridge ; they were talking about it yesterday." 
 
 Her questions set Dick off thinking; but again 
 Letty's voice broke in on his thoughts. 
 
 " Dick, I suppose we sha'n't go and live with 
 Aunt Maria, shall we, now she hasn't got Ellen and 
 Grace ? And, Dick, ought I always to say poor Ellen 
 and poor Grace when I speak of them ? Nurse and 
 Martha always did when any one was dead, and so 
 did Mrs. Tysoe." 
 
 " No, Letty. Nurse and Martha don't think when 
 they talk like that. Do you know, little Letty, when 
 I was so ill, I thought that you and Sybil were both 
 dead ; but I never once thought of you as poor 
 Letty or poor Sybil, but happy, little Letty and 
 Sybil, and poor, poor Dick, to have to live without 
 them ! " 
 
 Need I say that by this time Letty was on Dick's 
 sofa, as if the distance between the armchair and 
 the sofa might be enough to make Dick poor. 
 
 " And don't you remember," Dick went on, " how 
 Ellen looked that day we saw her at Sandyshore ? 
 how ill and tired and sad she seemed, not able to 
 run about or be happy or out of pain for a minute ?
 
 GETTING WELL. 259 
 
 She was poor Ellen then, but that is all changed 
 now." He was thinking to himself though he would 
 not say it to her, that, apart from her illness and 
 suffering, she would still have been poor Ellen, 
 brought up to be hard, and cold, and calculating, as 
 might so well have happened. 
 
 " Shall we go and live with Aunt Maria ? " There 
 was rather a dreary, little tone in the voice that asked 
 the question. 
 
 " Should you like to, Letty ? " 
 
 For all answer the arm tightened round his neck. 
 
 " Then, I suppose," said Letty, trying to speak 
 very cheerfully, but with a little inward shrinking, 
 like a young bird peeping out at a cold world from 
 under his .mother's wing, " that we shall go back to 
 Mrs. Ricketts ? " 
 
 " No, Letty ; never again, my little one. " 
 
 " Then do you think we could really and truly 
 afford to live at Mrs. Tysoe's ? Do you know, Dick, 
 Mr. Tysoe came ever so many times to ask how we 
 were, and brought us all sorts of things we weren't 
 allowed to have sweets and preserved ginger and 
 candied peel and Mrs. Tysoe came up once in the 
 cart, and was so angry because she was not let in to 
 see us ? But there's the new lodger, Dick the travel-
 
 260 TIP CAT. 
 
 ler, you know perhaps he would not like to turn out 
 and let us have the rooms again, and what shall \ve 
 do then ? " 
 
 Dick was hardly listening to Letty's words, for her 
 questions had set his mind so busily to work on what 
 would indeed be the best plan for the future. Cer- 
 tainly any arrangement like that of living at the Rick- 
 etts' was quite out of the question, and even the 
 Tysoes', if it was to be had, he felt would hardly be 
 the place for that very fragile, little sister of his. 
 And, besides, how did he know that Mr. Burgess's 
 situation would still be open to him, or if he would 
 have 'to seek another elsewhere ? Surely Uncle Tom 
 would be willing now (and it was only right and pro- 
 per that he should do st>) to provide for the children ; 
 " And as for me," thought Dick, "when I'm all right 
 again " 
 
 But just as Dick got so far in his meditations Tip 
 Cat came in, a little gruff at finding the window still 
 open and the fire almost out, for the sun had set, and 
 even at Torquay the end of- October is not like August 
 after sunset. 
 
 But by and by, when the windows were shut and 
 the curtains drawn and the sofa wheeled round to 
 the fire, which had woke up to fill the room with
 
 GETTING WELL. 261 
 
 warmth and ruddy light, Tip Cat, who had Letty in 
 his arms, started the very subject the two had been 
 discussing before he came in. 
 
 " How would you like, Letty, to live at Tipton 
 Grange ? " 
 
 " At Tipton Grange, with Mrs. Vivian and Kathie 
 Dumbleton ? " 
 
 " No ; at Tipton Grange with me." 
 
 He gave a little, quick look across at Dick to see 
 if he were listening, and then went on talking to Letty 
 and to Sybil, who came to sit on a stool at his feet. 
 
 " You see, Mrs. Vivian's lease is up next year, and 
 she wants to renew it. It's a large house, you know, 
 Letty, too large for me and Ridge, we should lose 
 one another in it, and spend all our lives trying to 
 find one another again. But it would be just the 
 right size for you and me and Sybil and Dick, and we 
 should want a few servants to wait on us, and per- 
 haps a governess or so Oh ! I don't mean, of 
 course, for you and Sybil, but for me and Dick ; and 
 then, perhaps, when Dick comes home from Oxford, 
 he'll bring friends with him, and they will help to fill 
 the place, and then, of course, you and Sybil will ask 
 your friends " 
 
 " Oh yes ! " burst in Sybil, " there's the Tysoes.
 
 262 TIP CAT. 
 
 I know they'd like to come, for Mr. Tysoe said he'd 
 never once been in at the front door." 
 
 " Yes, to be sure, the Tysoes," went on Tip Cat, 
 still with half an eye on Dick's face, the expression 
 of which he could not quite make out, though he saw 
 his hands, which had grown so thin and white in his 
 illness, clench and unclench nervously, as he listened. 
 " Do you think you could be happy there with me ? 
 Stop a bit, Dick ! Don't be in a hurry, lad ! " For 
 Dick had half raised himself from the sofa, with vehe- 
 ment words on his lips. " I must have my say first, 
 and tell you why I have a sort of right to you and 
 Lettyand Sybil." 
 
 And then he told him of his love for their mother, 
 and of that promise made years ago under the gold- 
 en chestnut tree in the vicarage garden, a promise 
 that seemed to have fallen as dead as those bright 
 autumn leaves ; forgotten as completely as last year's 
 leaves when the buds came out in May, the buds of 
 her great love for another ; buried with that dear 
 dust to dust in that far away grave in India. Till 
 suddenly, when least he looked for it, he had been 
 reminded of this promise by Letty's eyes looking up 
 at him from her child's face among the bushes by 
 the plank bridge, and having been slow, fool that he
 
 GETTING WELL. 263 
 
 was ! to hear his dead lady's voice, he had let it pass 
 till it came clear and plain beyond all mistaking, 
 in poor, little Letty's cry for help in their trouble. 
 " And now," he said, " do you think I can let you 
 go again ? " 
 
 " You are so good," Dick said ; his voice was 
 trembling, he was not very strong yet, and it was as 
 much as he could do to keep the tears back from his 
 eyes, and to steady his uncertain voice. " You have 
 been so good to us already that it seems a ridiculous 
 insult to thank you for what is quite beyond all 
 thanks. You gave us back our lives, you know. Oh 
 yes ! I know, I am not ungrateful, but don't you see, 
 it was through you, all through you." 
 
 Letty and Sybil had been wafted somehow out of 
 the room by nurse Esther to tea, and Dick and Tip 
 Cat were alone just now. 
 
 " Don't you think,", went on Dick, getting more 
 indistinct and chokey every minute, " that you have 
 more than fulfilled your promise to my mother with- 
 out being bothered with us any more ? " 
 
 " Come now," said Tip Cat, " do you think that 
 I can just go back to Tipton Farm and settle down 
 with Ridge and Kaiser as if nothing had happened ? 
 I don't believe Ridge would do it," he said, with a
 
 264 TIP CAT. 
 
 queer look at Dick as the sound of Ridge's voice 
 was heard from the next room evidently taking part 
 in a cheerful tea with the children and nurse Esther ; 
 " he has got thoroughly demoralised and so has 
 Kaiser. He would not go with me this afternoon 
 because Sybil held the end of his tail, and the old 
 idiot was too great a gentleman to pull it out of her 
 little hand." 
 
 There was silence then for a bit, and Dick lay 
 with great, luminous eyes shining in the firelight 
 and Tip Cat watched him under his thick brows and 
 waited for the words to express the thoughts that he 
 almost seemed to see passing from Dick's brain to 
 the tremulous, eager lips. 
 
 At last he spoke. " Tip Cat," he said, " I think 
 my mother would wish you to have the little girls, 
 and I know you'll be good to them ; and I've made 
 such a mull of taking care of them that I haven't the 
 pluck to try again ; and they wouldn't like to go to 
 Aunt Maria and I shouldn't like them to go either, 
 though I dare say, poor thing, she'd do her best to 
 be kind to them. And if you really will take care 
 of them till I see my way and can get on a bit, and 
 if you'll let me come now and then to see them and 
 you, I'll " But here Dick broke down altogether,
 
 GETTING WELL. 265 
 
 and Tip Cat leaning across laid his hand on the 
 young fellow's shaking shoulder. 
 
 " Dick," he said, " dear as Letty and Sybil are 
 to me, and I love them so that I sometimes wonder if 
 even I could have loved their mother herself better, 
 it is you, lad, Letty's boy, that I love best and that 
 I want most."
 
 266 TIP CAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 DICK'S OBSTINACY". 
 
 DURING the fortnight that followed that Sunday, 
 Tip Cat discovered a quality in Dick which he had 
 not hitherto recognised, that quality which the pos- 
 sessor calls firmness and other people obstinacy, the 
 display of which so exasperated Tip Cat, that he was 
 heard more than once to declare that he was an ob- 
 stinate, pig-headed, young fool, and he swallowed 
 down such a lot of strong language on account of the 
 children's presence, that he felt seriously uncomfort- 
 able from suppressed wrath. 
 
 The fact was that nothing would induce Dick to 
 agree to Tip Cat's plan for the future as far as he 
 himself was concerned. He accepted with the deep- 
 est gratitude Tip Cat's proposal for the little girls, 
 but for himself he declared that, when he was well, 
 he should look out for another situation, if Mr. Bur- 
 gess's was not to be had, and make another, and he 
 hoped a more successful, effort to earn his living.
 
 DICK'S OBSTINACY. 267 
 
 It was in vain that Tip Cat talked and argued till 
 he was hoarse and very angry ; Dick listened to all 
 he had to say with the greatest outward submission 
 but without budging an inch from his determination, 
 and the conversations almost always ended with warm 
 expressions of gratitude on Dick's part and an ex- 
 plosion of wrath on the part of Tip Cat. 
 
 Tip Cat tried every persuasion in his power ; 
 painted Dick's return to Oxford among all his old 
 friends, taking up again the pleasant, jolly, old life 
 just where it had been broken off ; his home at Tipton 
 Grange with the two little girls, where he could en- 
 tertain his friends ; of the hunters* he should have, 
 and the pheasant shooting that should be kept for 
 him, and the moor in Scotland that they would take, 
 and the yacht at Cowes that might make a pleasant 
 change, and, if he must have something to do, he 
 might be called to the bar or he might stand for the 
 county if he had any fancy that way ; did he think the 
 estates had been nursing up all these years for 
 nothing ? 
 
 But Dick only smiled and shook his head and 
 sternly prevented his mind from resting even for five 
 minutes on such glittering prospects. 
 
 And then Tip Cat declared that it would be months
 
 268 TIP CAT. 
 
 before Dick would be strong enough to do anything, 
 and drew such a gloomy picture of the probable state 
 of his health for the rest of his life, that Dick threat- 
 ened to show his strength by carrying Tip Cat him- 
 self round the room, and would have attempted it, if 
 he had not laughed himself into too hopeless a state 
 of exhaustion. 
 
 Then Tip Caf set Letty and Sybil at him, and this 
 was no laughing affair, for two very tearful faces came 
 to Tip Cat's door after their interview with Dick, to 
 say that Dick was always right, and they had prom- 
 ised never to try and persuade him to' do anything 
 else. 
 
 Then Tip Cat tried a desperate expedient and re- 
 gretted it bitterly. He said that, on consideration, 
 he thought it would not be right to take the little 
 girls without Dick, and that as Dick so entirely de- 
 clined his proposal, perhaps it would be better to 
 give up the whole plan and let Dick make some other 
 arrangement for his little sisters. 
 
 At first he thought this thrust had told, for Dick 
 sat silent and still, and his face was very white ; but 
 he turned Tip Cat's weapons on him when he ans- 
 wered that he, too, had been thinking the matter over 
 very seriously, and he thought that, perhaps, Tip Cat
 
 DICK'S OBSTINACY 269 
 
 was right, for that Aunt Maria, in her great trouble 
 and bereavement, had expressed a great wish to have 
 the little girls with her, and that it might be their 
 duty to consider her before making other plans. 
 
 Tip Cat was furious and Letty and Sybil in the 
 depths of woe, but patient and resigned to do just 
 what Dick thought right ; but Letty had such a fever- 
 ish night in consequence, and was so ill and prostrate 
 next day, that Tip Cat was reduced to the most abject 
 submission, and entreated Dick to make what ar- 
 rangements he pleased, but never even to suggest the 
 idea of the children going anywhere but into his care ; 
 as if, indeed, Dick had been the first to propose the 
 plan. 
 
 Dick made rather an ungenerous use of this 
 victor)', for he wrote that very day to Mr. Burgess 
 to know if the situation was still vacant, and if he 
 would allow him to return to his work in a month's 
 time^and Tip Cat looked on grimly while the letter 
 was being written and despatched, and did not dare 
 to say a word of expostulation on account of the 
 little, white face on the sofa which grew tremulous 
 at the least sign of a discussion. 
 
 For two days Tip Cat comforted himself and 
 crowed a little over Dick with the idea that Mr. Bur-
 
 270 TIP CAT. 
 
 gess must certainly have filled Dick's place by this 
 time, and no doubt much more to his satisfaction, as 
 Dick always represented, and firmly believed, that he 
 had made a very poor job of it at Mr. Burgess's 
 and given a lot of trouble by his inefficiency. But 
 the next day a letter came that quite touched Dick 
 by its kindness, and to a corresponding degree ir- 
 ritated Tip Cat, saying that Mr. Burgess much re- 
 gretted Mr. Lucas' illness, and should be very glad 
 if he would return to his office when his health was 
 quite re-established, also offering him a slight ad- 
 dition to his salary, and expressing his satisfaction 
 with the manner in which he had discharged his 
 duties while he had been there. 
 
 Indeed, Mr. Burgess had found it a very different 
 matter when Mr. Macintosh undertook Dick's du- 
 ties, and even Mr. Lupton had been obliged grudg- 
 ingly to confess, that things had gone better when 
 Dick was there, and that they might have a worse 
 clerk than he was. 
 
 Tip Cat's last hope now seemed to have come to 
 the ground, and he was sitting gloomily on one of the 
 seats under the cliff near the sea wall, pondering 
 how best he might alleviate this wilful young fellow's 
 life without offending the pride that he liked him all
 
 DICK'S OBSTINACY. 271 
 
 the better for possessing, when his eye was caught 
 by the face of a girl sitting in a carriage just then 
 drawn up by the pavement opposite to him. The 
 other occupant of the carriage was talking to a 
 gentleman standing on the other side, so he could 
 not see her face, but the girl was not apparently in- 
 terested in the conversation, but was leaning back 
 with her face turned towards Tip Cat and her 
 eyes gazing dreamily along the sunny roadway as 
 if her thoughts (and they were sad ones) were far 
 away. 
 
 Tip Cat did not often notice faces, least of all ladies' 
 faces ; but this one attracted him, for it was un- 
 usually sweet, and something in the look of the 
 eyes reminded him of Dick, and, through Dick, of 
 the Letty of long ago. But while he was looking at 
 her the other lady ended her conversation and turned, 
 and, as her eye met Tip Cat's, she gave a smile of 
 recognition, and bowed as the carriage drove off. 
 
 Who was it ? Tip Cat wondered ; but his circle of 
 lady friends was not so large that he could wonder 
 long, and, by the time his hat was on again, he 
 remembered that it was Mrs. Vivian. 
 
 That evening, as he was sitting by while the 
 children played, half reading the paper and half
 
 272 TIP CAT. 
 
 listening to the children's talk, he heard a name 
 several times repeated that sounded to him very fa- 
 miliar, and yet he could not clearly remember why he 
 knew it so well, 
 
 " Kathie Dumbleton," Letty said, had eyes just 
 like the doll, Tip Cat had bought the day before ; 
 but Sybil thought hers were darker, and at last they 
 appealed to Tip Cat, as Dick was not there. 
 
 " Who is Kathie Dumbleton ? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh, don't you know ? She lives with Mrs. 
 Vivian, at Tipton Grange ; and we went to tea with 
 her once, and she had a pink frock on and she 
 mended mine, and there were sponge cakes for tea, 
 and peacocks and lots of roses, and she pinned a rose 
 to our frocks, and Dick gave me threepence for mine 
 when it was quite withered." 
 
 " Oh-h-h-h ! " said Tip Cat. 
 
 He remembered now how the name had grown so 
 familiar to him ; it was not from the children's prat- 
 tle, but from a voice in delirium, repeating it over 
 and over again, joined to tender adjectives of love 
 or sad words of farewell. How stupid and slow he 
 had been in putting things together and reading 
 Dick's sad, little love-story ! And no doubt that was 
 Kathie Dumbleton who was with Mrs, Vivian that
 
 DICK'S OBSTINACY. 
 
 afternoon, and whose sweet face he had noticed, 
 and perhaps even then her thoughts had been with 
 Dick, as her eyes gazed dreamily away into the dis- 
 tance. If she really cared for Dick, as he had no 
 doubt Dick cared for her, why should they be parted ? 
 What reason could there be for that heartbroken 
 farewell that Dick had murmured over and over 
 again in his delirium ? " Kathie, my love, my love ; 
 goodbye ! " 
 
 Tip Cat was very silent and thoughtful all that 
 evening, but he noticed how Dick's color flushed 
 up when he came in and the children referred the 
 debated point about the doll's eyes to him, and how 
 after the little ones had gone to bed, he took up the 
 waxen beauty, and looked at the pretty, simpering 
 face with an eager scrutiny, and then pushed it away 
 impatiently, as if he were irritated with it, or him- 
 self. 
 
 But all the time Tip Cat was hatching a little 
 scheme, and the next afternoon he proceeded to 
 carry it out. He had promised to take Letty and 
 Sybil for a drive that afternoon, but for the first time 
 in the course of their acquaintance, he broke his pro- 
 mise and sent them off with Dick instead, saying 
 , that he had some business to do, and, after seeing
 
 274 TIP CAT. 
 
 them off, he set out himself in the direction of the 
 Imperial Hotel, where an examination of the visi- 
 tors' list had told him that Mrs. Vivian and her 
 niece were staying.
 
 " FOR MY SAKE. " 275 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 "FOR MY SAKE." 
 
 IT required some courage in Tip Cat, apart from 
 the ultimate object of his visit, to pay a call on 
 two ladies, when he had not done such a thing for 
 twenty-five years at the very least ; and though, 
 like Ridge, the society of the children had produced 
 a slight improvement in his personal appearance and 
 way of dressing, still, he was a gaunt, remarkable 
 figure, and many turned to look at him with curiosity 
 as he stalked along the streets with his shaggy dog at 
 his heels ; and the waiter at the Imperial looked very 
 suspiciously at this most unusual sort of morning 
 caller, who asked for Mrs. Vivian, and he looked 
 rather doubtfully at the card, which had been bought 
 at a stationer's on the way up, and on which the 
 name " Tipton Cathcart " was written in a hand which 
 not even the pin-pointed pen lent at the shop could 
 rob of its bold and rugged character.
 
 276 TIP CAT. 
 
 But the waiter returned to usher him in with a 
 great increase of alacrity and respect, for Mrs. 
 Vivian had appeared both pleased and surprised at 
 the sight of the name, and had desired the waiter to 
 show the gentleman up forthwith. 
 
 It was certainly enough to surprise her, for it was 
 the first time in the whole course of her experience 
 of her strange landlord, now of many years' duration, 
 that he had done anything but avoid her with a 
 pertinacity that bordered on downright rudeness. 
 
 "What could he possibly want ? " she wondered, 
 and for the first few minutes she could not solve the 
 problem, while he sat very stiff and upright on a 
 settee in the window, twisting his hat round and 
 round in his big hands, and staring out across the 
 lovely, blue bay as if he were intent on watching the 
 brown-sailed fishing boats turning into Brixham 
 Harbor, and only answering, with gruff monosyl- 
 lables, to her gentle stream of polite nothings about 
 the weather and the scenery. 
 
 Once or twice he gave a quick look round the 
 room, but there was no one there but Mrs. Vivian, 
 and though a half-finished sketch and an open col- 
 or-box lay on the table close by, no Kathie Dum- 
 bleton made her appearance on the scene ; so there
 
 " FOR MY SAKE." 277 
 
 was no help for it but to plunge into the object of 
 his call without any help from outward circum- 
 stances, and this he did, breaking into Mrs. Vivian's 
 enthusiastic expressions of admiration for Anstey's 
 Cove, as if he hardly knew she were speaking. 
 
 " You have a niece, I believe ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have several." 
 
 " I mean Kathie Dumbleton," 
 
 " Yes, Miss Dumbleton is now staying with me." 
 She meant the slight stress on the Miss to be a re- 
 proof to this very rough, almost brutal, old man ; 
 but she might have spared herself the trouble, for, if 
 she had spoken of Kathie as her royal highness, he 
 would scarcely have noticed it, so set was he on get- 
 ting out what he wanted to say. 
 
 " There is a young fellow I am much interested 
 in, named Dick Lucas," Tip Cat went on. 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Mrs. Vivian, with outward in- 
 difference, but with a sudden remembrance of that 
 evening in the Grange garden, when Kathie had 
 sobbed out her broken-hearted confession, and of 
 evenings since then, in the dusk or firelight, when 
 the girl's head had lain on her lap, and the young 
 voice had whispered that she never could forget, or 
 care for any one else. But Mrs. Vivian said " In-
 
 278 TIP CAT. 
 
 deed ? " as if she had never heard the name be- 
 fore. 
 
 " He is the son of a Colonel Lucas, who died in 
 Indfa, and he has been clerk at Mr. Burgess's at 
 Slowmill for the last six months." 
 
 " Really ? " murmured Mrs. Vivian ; " very cred- 
 itable to the young man, I'm sure." 
 
 " I have reason to believe, madam, that he has 
 formed an attachment for your niece." 
 
 " Indeed?" said Mrs. Vivian, with a slight rais- 
 ing of the eyebrows and drawing in of the lips, that 
 might have conveyed, to any one more sensitive than 
 a rhinoceros, the ridiculous presumption of such an 
 attachment; and the utter indifference with which 
 it should be regarded. But Tip Cat continued, " I 
 have the very highest opinion of young Lucas, 
 and I only hope your niece is half good enough 
 for him, but I think she is an uncommonly lucky 
 girl." 
 
 Now Mrs. Vivian was not easily provoked, she 
 was fat and comfortable and easy-going, and would 
 have been heartily glad if all the rest of the world 
 had been fat and comfortable and easy-going too ; 
 but the reader will allow that Tip Cat's way of treat- 
 ing the subject was enough to disturb the most in-
 
 " FOR MY SAKE. " 279 
 
 dolent good-nature, and Mrs. Vivian sat more up- 
 right in her arm chair than she had done for many a 
 day, and directed quite a withering glance at the un- 
 conscious Tip Cat. 
 
 " I think I understood you to say that this young 
 man was a clerk at Burgess's office." 
 
 " Yes," said Tip Cat. 
 
 " Not a very exalted position a paid clerk to a 
 country lawyer." 
 
 " No one said it was," growled Tip Cat. 
 
 " Then do you really mean to say, Mr. Cathcart, 
 that you think that this young man is in a position 
 to propose to my niece, who will come into a good 
 property at her father's death, besides what she al- 
 ready has from her mother ? " 
 
 " Eh h h ? " said Tip Cat, turning quite bewil- 
 dered to look at Mrs. Vivian, whose heightened col- 
 or and indignant eyes were quite unaccountable to 
 him. He had quite lost sight, had this romantic, 
 old man, of outward circumstances and worldly con- 
 siderations of wealth and position, and had been 
 thinking only of two young hearts that loved one 
 another, one of which he knew was good and pure 
 and true ; and he stared at Mrs. Vivian for a minute, 
 in silence " looking positively idiotic " that lady
 
 280 TIP CAT. 
 
 said in describing the scene afterwards but at last 
 a. light seemed to dawn on his mind and a smile on 
 the grave astonishment of his eyes. 
 
 " Oh ! " he said, " I see ! I beg your pardon ! 
 You see Tipton Grange estate is considerable, and 
 it will all be Dick Lucas's ; and as for settlements 
 and that sort of nonsense, I generally leave such 
 things to the lawyers, but I'll undertake there shall 
 be no grumbling over such trifles." 
 
 Mrs. Vivian's breath was fairly taken away, and 
 I think if Tip Cat had looked idiotic the minute be- 
 fore, she must have looked so now, as she sank 
 back with all the stiffness taken out of her backbone 
 and the firmness out of her lips and the fire out of 
 her eyes ; only Tip Cat did not care a snap how she 
 looked, for just then his eye caught sight, in the ter- 
 raced gardens below the window, of a girl's figure 
 walking pensively up and down in the sunshine. 
 
 " Is that your niece there ? " he said, and hardly 
 waiting for Mrs. Vivian's assent he got up ; " then 
 with your permission I will go and speak to her my- 
 self. Good day to you." And away he strode, leav- 
 ing poor Mrs. Vivian quite overcome, and obliged 
 to ring for her maid and give way to a glass of 
 sherry and palpitations brought on by what she at
 
 " FOR MY SAKE." 281 
 
 first called, the brutal, and afterwards, on reflection, 
 the eccentric, behavior of Tip Cat. 
 
 Meanwhile, that offender had made his way down 
 stairs and out into the hotel garden, where he found 
 Kathie alone as the sun was getting low in the west ; 
 and the two or three invalids who had been crawl- 
 ing up and down the paths had taken flight at the 
 first tint of sunset in the sky, and breath of evening 
 in the air, and had fled for shelter. 
 
 Kathie was a little bit startled at the sudden ap- 
 pearance of this strange, uncouth, old man, but she 
 guessed who he was before he spoke, and his voice 
 was softened to something of the same tone that 
 Letty and Sybil knew, as he told her (the old de- 
 ceiver !) that her aunt had given him leave to come 
 and find her there as he had a few words to say to 
 her. 
 
 Curious observers, watching from the hotel win- 
 dows as the two paced up and down the path while 
 the sunset glowed and faded in the sky, speculated 
 and wondered what the subject of such absorbing 
 interest could be, and what that strange looking, 
 rough, old man could be saying with those pleading 
 movements of the hands and eager eyes, scanning 
 the downcast, troubled face of the girl.
 
 282 TIP CAT. 
 
 He plunged into his subject without any preface, 
 and began telling her of the interest he felt in Dick 
 Lucas and his little sisters on account of their dead 
 mother. He noticed how the wave of color rushed 
 up into her temples and even to her little ears at the 
 first mention of Dick's name, and went on more hope- 
 fully, having been a little damped by his interview 
 with Mrs. Vivian. He told her of Dick's sudden 
 loss of fortune on his grandfather's death, of which 
 she already knew a little, and how bravely he had 
 tried to support himself and his two little sisters, and 
 how illness had come at last to end the pitiful strug- 
 gle, and how nearly death had followed. He saw the 
 tears start and tremble in her eyes, though she kept 
 them so steadily cast down, and sparkle on her lashes 
 though she made a pretext to pick an ivy leaf on the 
 wall to whisk them away unnoticed. He told her 
 how Dick had slowly recovered and how he (Tip Cat) 
 had set all his heart and hopes on having Dick as 
 his son, as Letty and Sybil were to be his little 
 daughters, and how the obstinate, young fellow had 
 persisted in refusing and had actually arranged to go 
 back to his drudgery at Mr. Burgess's in spite of all 
 persuasions. 
 
 " I have tried all the inducements I could think of,"
 
 " FOR MY SAKE:' 2 83 
 
 Tip Cat said, " to make him alter his determination, 
 but it is no good, and as a last resource I have come 
 to you, to ask you to use your influence." 
 
 They had come to the end of the path furthest from 
 the hotel, and as he said this they both stopped, and 
 Kathie gave a sudden, startled look into his face and 
 then began stripping the ivy leaf in her hand to pieces 
 with nervous fingers. But Tip Cat had no more to 
 say, he was waiting for her answer, and at last she 
 said very low : " I don't see what I can do in the 
 matter." 
 
 " Don't you ? " He turned quite fiercely on her and 
 his voice sounded harsh enough now. " Then you 
 don't care for him ! Why, do you think, if my love 
 Letty had come to me and said, ' Tip Cat, for my 
 sake ! ' there is anything in the world I would not have 
 done ? Heaven forgive me ! I think I would have 
 given my very soul and my hope of immortality ! " 
 
 She was leaning against the balustrades, with her 
 face turned away and he could only see the outline 
 of her cheek against the crimson of the western sky> 
 and her slender throat drawn up with what seemed 
 to him an air of cold, proud indifference, he could not 
 see the quivering of her lips, or the tumultuous beat- 
 ing of her heart, which had never seemed quite to
 
 284 TIP CAT. 
 
 regain its calm since that passionate kiss of her young 
 lover's that July evening. 
 
 He stood waiting a minute, and then without an- 
 other word turned and walked away, full of bitter 
 disappointment, and every sound of his heavy footfall 
 on the gravel path seemed to Kathie a clod thrown 
 into the grave of her happiness, buried without hope 
 of resurrection. 
 
 Reader, do you know in Paul and Virginia the ac- 
 count of Virginia's death ? and how she preferred to 
 die rather than cast off the clothing which would have 
 impeded the swimming of the brave sailor who would 
 have saved her, and how this is treated as exquisite 
 and refined modesty ? Even as a child it struck me as 
 false sentiment and that, to pervert the words of Scrip- 
 ture, the life is more than raiment. And do you 
 know how many love stories in fiction (fewer, I fancy, 
 in real life) end sadly because the heroine's modesty 
 will not allow a word or look to reveal the love that 
 is breaking her heart ? and so two people are made 
 miserable and two lives spoilt. Far be it from me to 
 speak a word against modesty. All honor to it ! There 
 cannot be too much of it, but, for pity's sake, let it 
 be real, not false ! 
 
 But Kathie was not of the stuff those heroines are
 
 " FOR MY SAKE." 285 
 
 made of, for, before Tip Cat had reached the steps 
 at the end of the terrace, she was by his side with 
 her little hand on his arm, and her face turned plead- 
 ingly up, more pleading for the tears that filled and 
 overflowed the eyes. 
 
 " Tell me," she said, " what I can do ? I will do 
 anything." 
 
 Did they say Tip Cat was harsh and rough ? Did 
 they say his eyes were hard and imperious, and his 
 manner brutal ? Ask Kathie Dumbleton how tend- 
 erly he took her hand in his, how kindly he smiled 
 down at her, and how gently he spoke. " My dear, 
 trust in me. I will take care of you and not ask you 
 to do anything that I would not ask of a sweet, 
 young daughter of my own." 
 
 The watchers from the hotel windows could make 
 neither head nor tail of it, as they watched the little 
 scene, at the end of which they saw Tip Cat lead 
 Kathie away, holding the hand that lay on his arm, 
 and some declared that as they came nearer they 
 could see that Kathie was crying, and when they 
 passed through the hotel and called a fly, and drove 
 off in it together, fche interested spectators felt as if 
 it must be some one's duty to go and warn Mrs, 
 Vivian of her niece's goings on.
 
 '286 TIP CAT. 
 
 I do not think that Tip Cat had any very settled 
 plan of action, when he carried Kathie Dumbleton 
 off in this way, and as for Kathie, she had no idea 
 at all of what was going to happen, only as long as 
 Tip Cat held her little hand in his firm grasp, she 
 did not feel very much afraid. 
 
 It was nearly dark when the fly stopped and Tip 
 Cat helped her out and led her, still holding her hand 
 in his, into the house and opened the door of a room 
 lighted only by a great, warm fire. At first Kathie 
 thought it was empty, but Tip Cat said, " Dick ! " and 
 at his voice some one got up from the sofa at the 
 further end, and came into the firelight. 
 
 " Dick, I have brought a visitor to see you." But 
 at these words .the poor, little visitor was overwhelmed 
 with a passion of confusion, and clung to Tip Cat's 
 arm as if it were her only safety. She suddenly re- 
 membered how last she had parted from this same 
 Dick, how could she look at him ? how could she 
 speak to him ? What could she say ? 
 
 And then all at once she looked up and saw such 
 a poor, white-faced Dick, so changed, so gaunt, with 
 such great, hollow eyes and such cropped hair, hold- 
 ing out such thin, wasted hands to her ! Was this 
 the proud, young fellow who refused Tip Cat's offers,
 
 " FOR MY SAKE." 287 
 
 and persisted in working his way ? how long would 
 he stand the treadmill at Mr. Burgess's and the poor 
 pay and hard living ? 
 
 In the pity of it she forgot all her shame, and let 
 go of Tip Cat's arm, and put both her hands into 
 Dick's, and, looking up into his eyes, spoke the first 
 words that came into her head, the very words that 
 Tip Cat had told her would have been so powerful 
 with him from the lips of his love. " Oh, Dick, for 
 my sake ! " 
 
 Reader, do you think Tip Cat had any doubt of his 
 victory after that, even though he stopped to hear no 
 more, but slipped away into the next room and sat 
 watching the lights appearing along the streets and 
 in the houses, and higher up the stars coming so 
 softly, gently out on night's breast ? 
 
 His heart was as tremulously happy as if the long, 
 empty years had rolled back and he were young 
 again and telling that love, on which death had laid 
 its solemn seal of silence, in Letty's ears and his eyes 
 grew dim as he murmured, " Letty, my love, at last ! " 
 
 THE END.
 
 .,v
 
 AA 000 731 768 8 
 
 OF CAEIFOl 
 1GELES
 
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