an exaggerated gesture of astonishment, unseen by his father. 'I told
him to bring his dog. He would have left it, but they seemed so fond
of each other, I thought it was a pity to part them, and that I could
promise it should be welcome here; eh, mamma?'

'Certainly. I am very glad you brought it.'

'We are to have his horse and man in a little while. A beautiful
chestnut--anything to raise his spirits. He is terribly cut up about
his grandfather.

It was now time to go down to dinner; and after Charles had made faces
of weariness and disgust at all the viands proposed to him by his
mother, almost imploring him to like them, and had at last ungraciously
given her leave to send what he could not quite say he disliked, he was
left to carry on his teasing of Charlotte, and his grumbling over the
dinner, for about the space of an hour, when Amabel came back to him,
and Charlotte went down.

'Hum!' he exclaimed. 'Another swan of my father's.'

'Did not you like his looks?'

'I saw only an angular hobbetyhoy.'

'But every one at Redclyffe speaks so well of him.'

'As if the same things were not said of every heir to more acres than
brains! However, I could have swallowed everything but the disposition
to adore Philip. Either it was gammon on his part, or else the work of