to go with him. It was much against Lord Ormersfield's advice, but
she thought it her duty, poor dear. I believe he positively hates
Lord Ormersfield; and as if for a parting unkindness, he left his
little girl at school with orders to spend her holidays with his
sister, and never to be with us.'

'That accounts for it!' said James. 'I never knew all this! nor why
we were so entirely cut off from Mary Ponsonby. I wonder what she is
now! She was a droll sturdy child in those days! We used to call
her Downright Dunstable! She was almost of the same age as Louis,
and a great deal stouter, and used to fight for him and herself too.
Has not she been out in Peru?'

'Yes, she went out at seventeen. I believe she is an infinite
comfort to her mother.'

'Poor Mary! Well, we children lived in the middle of a tragedy, and
little suspected it! By the bye, what relation are the Ponsonbys to
us?'

'Mrs. Ponsonby is my niece. My dear sister, Mary--'

'Married Mr. Raymond--yes, I know! I'll make the whole lucid; I'll
draw up a pedigree, and Louis shall learn it.' And with elaborate
neatness he wrote as follows, filling in the dates from the first
leaf of an old Bible, after his grandmother had left the room. The
task, lightly undertaken, became a mournful one, and as he read over
his performance, his countenance varied from the gentleness of regret
to a look of sarcastic pride, as though he felt that the world had
dealt hardly by him, and yet disdained to complain.