“Here,” added her brother, “take the poor fellow a sovereign.”

“In compensation for the sudden cooling of your affection,” said Jock.  “Well, if it is an excuse for an excursion with Sydney I’ll not interfere, but ask him for his sister’s address in London, for I promised to tell her about him.”

“Oh,” cried Babie, at the word ‘London,’ “then you have heard from Dr. Medlicott?”

“I did once,” said John, “with some very useful suggestions, but that was a month ago or more.”

“I meant,” said Babie, “a letter he wrote for the chance of Jock’s getting it before he sailed.  There’s the assistant lectureship vacant, and the Professor would not like anyone so much.  It is his own appointment, not an election matter, and he meant to keep it open till he could get an answer from Jock.”

“When was this?” asked Jock, flushing with eagerness.

“The 20th.  Dr. Medlicott came down to Fordham for Sunday, to ask if it was worth while to telegraph, or if I thought you would be well enough.  It is not much of a salary, but it is a step, and Dr. Medlicott knows they would put you on the staff of the hospital, and then you are open to anything.”

Jock drew a long breath and looked at his mother.  “The very thing I’ve wished,” he said.

“Exactly.  Must he answer at once?”

“The Professor would like a telegram, yes or no, at once.”

“Then, you wedded Monk, will you add to your favours by telegraphing for me?”

“Yes.  Of course it is ‘Yes’.  How soon should you have to begin, I wonder?”

“Oh, I’m quite cheeky enough for that sort of work.  If you’ll telegraph, I’ll write by to-night’s post.”

“I’ll go and do the telegraphing,” said Cecil; “I don’t trust those two.”

“As if John ever made mistakes,” cried Sydney.

“In fact, I want to send a telegram home.”

“To frighten Essie.  She will get a yellow envelope saying you accept a lectureship, and the Professor urgent inquiries after his baby.”

“Sydney is getting too obstreperous, Monk,” said Cecil.  “You had better carry her off.  I shall come back by the time you have written your letters, Jock.”

“Those two are too happy to do anything but tease one another,” said Mrs. Evelyn, as the door shut on the three.  “My rival grandmother, as Babie calls her, was really quite glad to get rid of Cecil; she declared he would excite Esther into a fever.”

“He did alarm Her Serenity herself,” said Babie, laughing.  “When she would go on about grand sponsors and ancestral names, he told her that he should carry the baby off to Church and have him christened Jock out of hand, and what a dreadful thing that would be for the peerage.  I believe she thought he meant it.”

“The name is to be John,” said Mrs. Evelyn—-"John Marmaduke.  He has secured his godmother"-—laying a hand affectionately on Babie-—"but I must not forestall his request to his two earliest and best friends.”