and sleep at Mrs. Merrifield's.'

'But this does not seem to me so very bad.'

'Oh, no, no! but when I get there in three weeks' time, it will be
just when I shall be most wanted. The nursing will have told on the
girls, and Jasper will be feeling weary of being laid up, and wanting
to take liberties.'

'And what will you be after such a journey?'

'Just up to keeping him in order. Come, you have too much sense to
expostulate, Jenny.'

'No; you would wear yourself to fiddle-strings if you stayed at home.
I only want you to take Hal, or Macrae.'

'Hal is out of the question, I would not interfere with his
preparation on any account. Macrae would be a very costly article;
and, moreover, I want him to act major-domo here, unless you would,
and that I don't dare to hope for.'

'No, you must not, Lily; Ada never feels well here, nor always at
Brighton, and Emily would be too nervous to have her without me.
But we will take as many children as you please, or we have room
for.'

'That is like you, Jenny. I know William will offer to take them in
at home, but I cannot send them without Miss Vincent; and she cannot
leave her mother, who has had a sort of stroke. Otherwise I should