as any other man. I think Allan was rather ambitious in his secret
views. He wanted to remain longer at the hospital and get into a
London practice; he would have liked to have been higher up the tree
than Uncle Geoffrey, who was quite content with his quiet position at
Milnthorpe. But the most astonishing part of the domestic programme
was, that we were all going to live with Uncle Geoffrey. I could
scarcely believe my ears when I heard it, and Carrie was just as
surprised. Could any of us credit such unselfish generosity? He had
not prepared us for it in the least.

"Now, girls, you must just pack up your things, you, and the mother,
and Dot; of course we must take Dot, and you must manage to shake
yourselves down in the old house at Milnthorpe"--that is how he put
it; "it is not so big as Combe Manor, and I daresay we shall be
rather a tight fit when Allan comes; but the more the merrier, eh,
Jack?"

"Oh, Uncle Geoff, do you mean it?" gasped Jack, growing scarlet; but
Carrie and I could not speak for surprise.

"Mean it! Of course. What is the good of being a bachelor uncle, if
one is not to be tyrannized over by an army of nephews and nieces? Do
you think the plan will answer, Esther?" he said, rather more
seriously.

"If you and Deborah do not mind it, Uncle Geoffrey, I am sure it
ought to answer; but we shall crowd you, and put you and Deborah to
sad inconvenience, I am afraid;" for I was half afraid of Deborah,
who had lived with Uncle Geoffrey for five-and-twenty years, and was
used to her own ways, and not over fond of young people.