"Thank you, I can do that better without her," said Carey. "She
exasperates them sometimes."

"I believe granny is thinking whether she is not wanted to keep
Mother Carey in order as well as her chickens. Hasn't mother been
taken for your governess, Carey?"

"No, no, Joe, that's too bad. They asked Janet at the dancing-school
whether her sister was not going to join."

"Her younger sister?"

"No, I tell you, her half-sister. But Clara Acton will do discretion
for us, granny; and I promise you we won't do anything her husband
says is very desperate! Don't be afraid."

"No," said grandmamma, smiling as she kissed her daughter-in-law, and
rose to take her candle; "I am never afraid of anything a mother can
share with her boys."

"Even if she is nearly a tomboy herself," laughed the husband, with
rather a teasing air, towards his little wife. "Good night, mother.
Shall not we be snug with nobody left but Janet, who might be great-
grandmother to us both?"

"I really am glad that Janet should stay with granny," said Carey,
when he had shut the door behind the old lady; "she would be left
alone so many hours while you are out, and she does need more waiting
on than she used to do."