till she finds him, and there the first time he opens his eyes is that sweet, quaint piece of innocence leaning over him.  He is shut up with her for ten days or so; she is as graceful as a sylph, and has a tender sort of baby face that’s enough to distract a man, and I don’t see how he could possibly leave that vessel without being in love with her, unless some other woman had already got hold of his heart.  No, even if St. George did not know himself that he cared for her, he ought to have been allowed time to find it out before any one else spoke.  And there is Val in constant correspondence with her, and as secure as possible!”

Conversation then turned to the Melcombes.  Old Augustus spoke uneasily of the boy, said he looked pale, and was not grown.

“He gets that pallor from his mother,” said John.  “I should not like to see any of my children such complete reproductions of either parent as that boy is of her.  Family likeness is always strongest among the uncultivated, and among lethargic and stupid people.  If you go down into the depths of the country, to villages, where the parents hardly think at all, and the children learn next to nothing, you’ll find whole families of them almost exactly alike, excepting in size.”

His father listened quietly, but with the full intention of bringing the conversation back to Peter as soon as he could.

“It is the same with nations,” proceeded John, “those who have little energy and no keen desire for knowledge are ten times more alike in feature, complexion, and countenance than we are.  No! family likeness is all very well in infancy, before the mind has begun to work on the face; but as a man’s children grow, they ought to be less and less alike every year.”

“That little fellow,” said the father, “seems to me to be exactly like what he was a year ago.”

“I observe no change.”

“Do you think he is an average child, John?”

John laughed.  “I think that little imp of mine, Hughie, could thrash him, if they chose to fight, and he is nearly three years the younger of the two.  No, I do not think he is an average child; but I see nothing the matter with him.”

Grand was not exempt from the common foibles of grandfathers, and he was specially infatuated in favour of the little Hugh, who was a most sweet-tempered and audacious child, and when his son went on, “Those two little scamps are getting so troublesome, that they will have to be sent to school very shortly,” he said, almost in a grumbling tone, “They’re always good enough when they’re with me.”

So, in course of time, Mrs. and Miss Melcombe set forth on their travels; it was their ambition to see exactly the same places and things that everybody else goes to see, and they made just such observations on them as everybody else makes.