'The lad you sent out? Ay. Left him up at the mines. Sharp fellow,
but too raw for the office yet.'

'Too scrupulous!' said James, in an undertone, while his uncle was
explaining to his mother that he could not have come away without
leaving Robson to manage his affairs, and Mr. Ponsonby, and telling
exultingly some stories of the favourite clerk's sharp practice.

The party went down together in a not very congenial state.

Next to Mrs. Frost's unalloyed gladness, the most pleasant spectacle
was old Jane, who volunteered her services in helping to wait, that
she might have the delight of hovering about Master Oliver, to whom
she attended exclusively, and would not let Charlotte so much as
offer him the potatoes. And Charlotte was in rather an excited state
at the presence of a Peruvian production, and the flutter of
expecting a letter which would make her repent of the smiles and
blushes she had expended over an elaborate Valentine, admired as an
original production, and valued the more, alas! because poor Marianne
had received none. Charlotte was just beginning to repent of her
ungenerous triumph, and agitation made her waiting less deft and
pretty than usual; but this mattered the less, since to Oliver any
attendance by women-servants was a shock, as were the small table and
plain fare; and he looked round uneasily.

'Here is an old friend, Oliver,' said his mother, taking up a curious
old soup-ladle.

'I see. It will take some time to get up the stock of plate. I