"Oh, then there's _another_ other boy, sir?" said Willie with a look of interest. "Hold your tongue!" said Mr Auberly in a sharp voice; "you're a fool, and you're much too fond of speaking. I advise you to keep your tongue quieter if you wish to get on in life." Willie once more sought relief in his pocket-handkerchief, while his patron indited and sealed an epistle, which he addressed to "Miss Tippet, Number 6, Poorthing Lane, Beverly Square." "Here, boy, take this to the lady to whom it is addressed--the lane is at the opposite corner of the square--and wait an answer." "Am I to bring the answer back to you, sir?" asked Willie with much humility. "No; the answer is for yourself," said Mr Auberly testily; "and hark 'ee, boy, you need not trouble me again. That note will get you all you desire." "Thank you, sir," said Willie, making a bow, and preparing to retire; "but please, sir, I don't very well know, that is to say--ahem!" "Well, boy?" said the patron sternly. "Excuse me, sir; I can't help it, you know; but please, sir, I wish to explain about that other boy--no, that's me, but the _other_ other boy, you know--" "Begone, boy!" cried Mr Auberly in a voice so stern that Willie found himself next moment in the street, along which he ran chuckling worse than ever. A little reflection might have opened Mr Auberly's eyes to the truth in regard to Willie, but a poor relation was to him a disagreeable subject of contemplation, and he possessed the faculty, in an eminent degree, of dismissing it altogether from his mind. Having care enough on his mind at that time, poor man, he deliberately cast the confusion of the two boys out of his thoughts, and gave himself up to matters more interesting and personal. We may add here that Mrs Willders was faithful to her promise, and never more addressed her brother-in-law by word or letter. When Willie afterwards told her and Frank of the absurdity of his interview, and of the violent manner in which Mr Auberly had dismissed him when he was going to explain about the "other" boy, his mother thought it best to let things rest as they stood, yet she often wondered in her own quiet way what Mr Auberly would think of her and of the non-appearance of the "other" boy; and she felt convinced that if he only put things together he _must_ come to understand that Willie and Frank were her sons. But Mrs Willders did not know of the before-mentioned happy facility which her kinsman possessed of forgetting poor relations; so, after wondering on for a time, she ceased to wonder or to think about it at all. CHAPTER SEVEN. THOUGHTS IN REGARD TO MEN. Miss Emelina Tippet was a maiden lady of pleasing countenance and exceedingly uncertain age.