Rumty himself, with his pen behind his ear under his rusty hat, arrived at the carriage-door in a breathless condition, and had been fairly lugged into the vehicle by his cravat and embraced almost unto choking, before he recognized his daughter. “My dear child!” he then panted, incoherently. “Good gracious me! What a lovely woman you are! I thought you had been unkind and forgotten your mother and sister.”

“I have just been to see them, Pa dear.”

“Oh! and how⁠—how did you find your mother?” asked R. W. , dubiously.

“Very disagreeable, Pa, and so was Lavvy.”

“They are sometimes a little liable to it,” observed the patient cherub; “but I hope you made allowances, Bella, my dear?”

“No. I was disagreeable too, Pa; we were all of us disagreeable together. But I want you to come and dine with me somewhere, Pa.”