dwell in his mind as it did in hers. He did not even think of it--it was so of course, and of course she had purchased this competence which she shared with her second husband by being an excellent wife to the previous husband, and winning his trust and confidence. Mr. Beaufort luckily did not feel that there was any reason for dwelling upon that side of the question. Next morning the whole party was revived and cheerful. The children, when they burst into the room, after a long enforced waiting in the temporary nursery which looked to the back, and from which they saw nothing but chimneys and the backs of other houses, rushed to the large window of the room in which Lady Car was breakfasting, with a scream of pleasure. To look out upon the busy road full of carriages and people, and the trees and space of Hyde Park beyond, delighted them. Little Tom stood smacking the whip which was his perpetual accompaniment, and making ejaculations. ‘Oh, I say! What lots and lots of people! There’s a pony! but he can’t ride a bit, that fellow on it. Where’s he going to ride? What’s inside those gates? is it a palace or is it a park, or what is it? I say, Beau!--what a liar he is, Jan! he said there was nobody in London--and there’s millions!’ ‘Tom,’ said Lady Car; ‘if you say such things you will be sent away.’ ‘Let him talk,’ said Beaufort; ‘he is quite right from his point of view. You must remember, Tom, that, though you’re a clever fellow, you don’t know everything; and there may be millions of people in London though there’s nobody.’ They both turned upon him incredulous faces, with that cynicism of childhood which is as remarkable as its trust, overawed by a sense of his superior knowledge, yet quite unconvinced of his good faith. Their faces were very like each other--rather large and without colour, their eyebrows shaggy and projecting, their large round eyes _à fleur de tête_. Janet’s little red mouth, which was her pretty feature, was open with suspicion and wonder. Tom’s bore an expression of half-assumed scorn. He was a little afraid of ‘Beau,’ and had an alarmed belief in him, at the bottom of much doubt of his meaning and resistance generally. ‘You seem to have a great budget of correspondence this morning, Car.’ ‘From the house-agents; there seem to be houses to be had everywhere. Instead of any difficulty in finding one, we shall only be troubled where to choose. What do you say to Richmond? the river is so lovely, and the park so delightful for the children, and----’ ‘If Tom is going to school, as I suppose he is, there will only be one child to consider, and little Jan is not _difficile_.’ ‘Am I going to school, mother?’ Tom faced round again suddenly from the window and stood against the light with his legs apart, a very square, solid little form to reckon with.