"MY BROTHER? BROTHER TOM?

"Oh, Caudle! dear Caudle--"


"It was too much for the poor soul," says Caudle; "she sobbed as if
her heart would break, and I--" and here the MS. is blotted, as
though Caudle himself had dropped tears as he wrote.



LECTURE XVI--BABY IS TO BE CHRISTENED; MRS. CAUDLE CANVASSES THE
MERITS OF PROBABLE GODFATHERS



"Come, now, love, about baby's name? The dear thing's three months
old, and not a name to its back yet. There you go again! Talk of it
to-morrow! No; we'll talk of it to-night. There's no having a word
with you in the daytime--but here you can't leave me. Now don't say
you wish you could, Caudle; that's unkind, and not treating a wife--
especially the wife to you--as she deserves. It isn't often that I
speak but I DO believe you'd like never to hear the sound of my
voice. I might as well have been born dumb!

"I suppose the baby MUST have a godfather; and so, Caudle, who shall
we have? Who do you think will be able to do the most for it? No,
Caudle, no; I'm not a selfish woman--nothing of the sort--but I hope
I've the feelings of a mother; and what's the use of a godfather if