'There now, Aunt Kitty, I am gone. I must have the pleasure of
looking natural sometimes, without causing any vituperation of any
one beyond seas.'

'You shall look just as you please if you will only stay. We are
just going to dinner.'

'Thank you, let me come to-morrow. I shall be better company when I
have had my sulk out.'

His aunt followed him to the stairs, and he turned to her, saying,
anxiously, 'No letter?' She shook her head. 'It would be barely
possible,' he said, 'but if it would only come while I am at home in
peace!'

'Ah! this is sadly trying!' said she, parting his hair on his brow as
he stood some steps below her, and winning a sweet smile from him.

'All for the best,' he said. 'One thing may mitigate another. That
political whirlpool might suck me in, if I had any heart or hopes for
it. And, on the other hand, it would be very unwholesome to be left
to my own inertness--to be as good for nothing as I feel.'

'My poor dear boy, you are very good about it. I wish you could have
been spared.'

'I did not come to make you sad, Aunt Kitty,' he replied, smiling;
'no; I get some energy back when I remember that this may be a
probation. Her mother would not have thought me man enough, and that