“Poor Janet, I suppose she wanted some of her notes of lectures,” said her mother.  “Brock’s sound old house-dog instinct must have been very inconvenient to her.  I must write and ask what she wanted.”

“But she forbade him to mention it,” said Bobus.

“Of course that was only to avoid the fuss there would have been if it had been known that she had been here without coming to Kencroft.  By the bye, I didn’t tell Brock those good people were coming to dinner.  How well the dear old Monk looks, and how charming Essie and Ellie!  But I shall never know them apart, now they are both the same size.”

“You won’t feel that difficulty long,” said Bobus.  “There really is no comparison between them.”

“Just the insipid English Mees,” said Elvira.  “You should hear what the French think of the ordinary English girl!”

“So much the better,” said Bobus.  “No respectable English girl would wish for a foreigner’s insulting admiration.”

“Well done, Bobus!  I never heard such an old-fashioned insular sentiment from you.  One would think it was your namesake.  By the bye, where is the great Rob?”

“At Aldershot,” said Jock.  “I assure you he improves as he grows older.  I had him to dine the other day at our mess, and he cut a capital figure by judiciously holding his tongue and looking such a fine fellow, that people were struck with him.”

“There,” said Armine, slyly, “he has the seal of the Guards’ approval.”

Jock could afford to laugh at himself, for he was entirely devoid of conceit, but he added, good humouredly—-

“Well, youngster, I can tell you it goes for something.  I wasn’t at all sure whether the ass mightn’t get his head out of the lion-skin.”

“Oh, yes! they are all lions and no asses in the Guards,” said Babie; whereupon Jock fell on her, and they had a playful skirmish.

Nobody came to dinner but John and his two sisters.  It had turned out that the horse had been too much worked to be used again, and there was a fine moon, so that the three had walked over together.  Esther and Eleanor Brownlow had always been like twins, and were more than ever so now, when both were at the same height of five feet eight, both had the same thick glossy dark-brown hair, done in the very same rich coils, the same clearly-cut regular profiles, oval faces, and soft carnation cheeks, with liquid brown eyes, under pencilled arches.  Caroline was in confusion how to distinguish them, and trusted at first solely to the little coral charms which formed Esther’s ear-rings, but gradually she perceived that Esther was less plump and more mobile than her sister-—her colour was more variable, and she seemed as timid as ever, while Eleanor was developing the sturdy Friar texture.  Their aunt had been the means of sending them to a good school, and they had a much more trained and less homely appearance than Jessie at the same age, and seemed able to take their