Upstairs in the sick room Major Lovell proved a wonderfully patient and
skillful nurse; but there were times when all his bright cheeriness
could not smooth the furrows in the invalid's brow, or take away the
fretfulness of tone.

One morning Major Lovell came down from an interview with him with a
puzzled expression of face. Catching sight of Milly in the hall,
equipped in hat and jacket, he asked,--

"Are you going out with nurse?"

"No, nurse is busy--just by my own self, in the avenue with Fritz. Do
come with me."

The major consented, but with a graver face than usual, and then
suddenly, very full of his own thoughts, said to the child,--

"I believe your uncle has something on his mind. It strikes me from
different things he has let drop that he is turning pious."

"What is pious?" inquired Milly, instantly.

"What is it? A pious person thinks every one wicked but themselves, and
condemns everybody and everything all round them. They are most
objectionable people, little woman, so mind you never take up that line,
and the worst of it is that they're so satisfied with their own
goodness, that you can't crush them, try as much as you may."

"And is Uncle Edward going to be like them?" asked the child, with a