"There, then," said her brother with trembling voice, "we must make the best of a bad job.--Walter, don't let's have any more steeplechases.-- Amos, my dear boy, I've said I wouldn't pay, so I must stick to it, but we'll make up the loss to you in some way or other." "All right, dear father," replied Amos, hardly able to speak for gladness. Never for years past had Mr Huntingdon called him "dear." That one word from his father was worth the whole of the hundred pounds to him twice over. The squire had business with one of the tenants in the library that evening, so his sister and her two nephews were alone in the drawing- room after dinner. "Aunt," said Walter, "look at my hands; do you know what this means?" His hands were crossed on his knees. "I think I do," she replied with a smile; "but do you tell me yourself." "Why, it means this,--_I_ am going to bring forward for our general edification an example of moral courage to-night, and my hero is no less a person than Martin Luther; and there is _my_ Martin Luther." As he said this he placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, and looked at him with a bright and affectionate smile. "Yes, he is my Martin Luther: only, instead of his being brought before a `Diet of Worms,' a very substantial _diet_ of fish, flesh, and fowl has just been brought before _him_; and instead of having to appear before the Emperor Charles the Fifth, he is now appearing before Queen Katharine the First of Flixworth Manor." Both his hearers laughed heartily and happily; then he added: "Now I am going to trot out my hero--nay, that word `trot' won't do; I've had too much of both trotting and galloping lately. But what I mean is, I want to show you what it is that I specially admire in my hero, and how this exactly fits in with my dear hero-brother Amos. Ah! I see he wants to stop me, but, dear Aunt Kate, you must use your royal authority and back me up; and when I have done, you can put in what notes and comments and addenda and corrigenda you like, and tell me if I have not just hit the right nail on the head.