"I've found it!--I've found it, mamma!" cried little Charles Percival,
running eagerly into the room with a plant in his hand. "Will you send
this in your letter to Helena Delacour, and tell her that is the thing
that gold fishes are so fond of? And tell her that it is called lemna, and
that it may be found in any ditch or pool."

"But how can she find ditches and pools in Grosvenor-square, my dear?"

"Oh, I forgot that. Then will you tell her, mamma, that I will send her a
great quantity?"

"How, my dear?"

"I don't know, mamma, yet--but I will find out some way."

"Would it not be as well, my dear," said his mother, smiling, "to consider
how you can perform your promises before you make them?"

"A gentleman," said Mr. Vincent, "never makes a promise that he cannot
perform."

"I know that very well," said the boy, proudly: "Miss Portman, who is very
good-natured, will, I am sure, be so good, when she goes back to Lady
Delacour, as to carry food for the gold fishes to Helena--you see that I
have found out a way to keep my promise."

"No, I'm afraid not," said Belinda; "for I am not going back to Lady
Delacour's."