"Surely," said Henrietta, "you must be able to beat him then, if you
are before him now."

"Don't make too sure, Henrietta," said Frederick, shaking his head,
"Langford is a hard-working fellow, very exact and accurate; I should
not have been before him now if it had not been for my verses."

"I know Beatrice is very proud of Alexander," said Henrietta, "she
would make a great deal of his success."

"Why of his more than of that of any other cousin?" said Frederick with
some dissatisfaction.

"O you know he is the only one of the Knight Sutton cousins whom she
patronizes; all the others she calls cubs and bears and Osbaldistones.
And indeed, Uncle Geoffrey says he thinks it was in great part owing to
her that Alex is different from the rest. At least he began to think
him worth cultivating from the time he found him and Busy Bee perched
up together in an apple-tree, she telling him the story of Alexander
the Great. And how she always talks about Alex when she is here."

"Is she at Knight Sutton?"

"Yes, Aunt Geoffrey would not come here, because she did not wish to be
far from London, because old Lady Susan has not been well. And only
think, Fred, Queen Bee says there is a very nice house to be let close
to the village, and they went to look at it with grandpapa, and he kept
on saying how well it would do for us."