'Dead to me, brother,--and you will never mention his name!' You should have seen how stern your uncle looked. I was terrified." "But the girl,--why did not he bring her here?" "She is still in France, but he talks of going over for her; and we have half promised to visit them both in Cumberland.--But, bless me! is that twelve? and the posset quite cold!" "One word more, dearest mother--one word. My father's book--is he still going on with it?" "Oh yes, indeed!" cried my mother, clasping her hands; "and he must read it to you, as he does to me--_you_ will understand it so well. I have always been so anxious that the world should know him, and be proud of him as we are,--so--so anxious!--for perhaps, Sisty, if he had married that great lady, he would have roused himself, been more ambitious--and I could only make him happy, I could not make him great!" "So he has listened to you at last?" "To me!" said my mother, shaking her head and smiling gently: "No, rather to your Uncle Jack,--who, I am happy to say, has at length got a proper hold over him." "A proper hold, my dear mother! Pray beware of Uncle Jack, or we shall be all swept into a coal-mine, or explode with a grand national company for making gunpowder out of tea-leaves!" "Wicked child!" said my mother laughing; and then, as she took up her candle and lingered a moment while I wound my watch, she said musingly,--"Yet Jack is very, very clever,--and if for your sake we _could_ make a fortune, Sisty!" "You frighten me out of my wits, mother! You are not in earnest?" "And if _my_ brother could be the means of raising _him_ in the world"-- "Your brother would be enough to sink all the ships in the Channel, ma'am," said I, quite irreverently. I was shocked, before the words were well out of my mouth; and throwing my arms round my mother's neck, I kissed away the pain I had inflicted.