consequence took her place as mistress over the household.

Three years before, Roy and Dudley arrived within a month of each other,
to find a home with their grandmother. Roy, whose proper name was
Fitzroy, came from Canada, both his parents having died out there.
Dudley's father had died when he was a baby, but his mother had married
again in India; and upon her death which occurred not long after, his
stepfather had sent him home to his grandmother. From the first day that
they met, the boys were sworn friends; and their aunt dubbed them
"David" and "Jonathan" after having been an unseen witness of a very
solemn vow transacted between them under the shadow of the pines, only a
week after their meeting.

Roy's delicate health was a cause of great anxiety to his grandmother,
and if it had not been for Miss Bertram's wise tact and judgment, he
would have been imprisoned in one room and swathed in cotton wool most
of the year round. He had the advantage of having an old nurse who had
brought him up from his birth, and had come from Canada with him; and
she was as vigilant and experienced in managing his ailments as could be
desired. Poor little Roy, with his uncertain health, was heir to a very
large property of his father's not far away; and the responsibilities
awaiting him, and the knowledge that he would have so much power in his
hands, perhaps had the effect of making him weigh life more seriously
than would most boys of his age.

Later on after their visit to their grandmother was over, and tea had
been finished in the nursery, he wandered into his own little room, and
leaning out of his window, looked up into the clear sky above.

"I feel so small," was his wistful thought, "and heaven is so big; but