"Let me see: Humpty-Dumpty, was an egg, wasn't he?" "That gentleman said it was Humphie who was Humpty-Dumpty. Is that true, Fardie?" "No, darling; how could Humphrey be an egg?" "One part's true, though," said Miles, "'Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall.'" "Ah! that's true!" sighed Sir Everard. "What's the end, Fardie? I want to remember it, and I can't--do you?" Why did Sir Everard put the child down so suddenly, and why should his voice falter a little, as he repeated the baby couplet? They were only nursery rhymes, and this is how they ended: "All the king's horses, and all the king's men, Will never set Humpty-Dumpty up again." "It's 'diculous nonsense, Fardie, of _course_?" "A ridiculous nonsensical rhyme, darling!" But ah! how nearly the sublime and the ridiculous touch sometimes in this world! CHAPTER XV. Humphrey passed the night partly in heavy sleep and partly in feverish restlessness. His first inquiry in the morning was for Miles, and the next for the gentlemen who were to help him to get well so quick. The latter he was told could not arrive till eleven o'clock, but Sir Everard went to fetch little Miles, and whispering to him not to talk much or to stay long, he put the child down and stayed by the door to watch the meeting between the two little brothers. Miles advanced rather timidly, the room was so dark and everything looked so strange. But as soon as he distinguished his brother he ran forward. "Humphie! get up, get up. Why do you 'ie there, and look so white?" "I'm ill, Miles!"--in a tone half plaintive, half triumphant. "_Musn't_ be ill, Humphie--oh, don't be ill!" "_You're_ often ill, Miles; why shouldn't I be ill sometimes?" "Don't like it," said the child, his eyes filling with tears. "Oh, Humphie, I wish we hadn't _tummelled_ into the pond!" At this moment Sir Everard was called away, and informed that the physicians had arrived from London. He found them in the dining-room, talking over the case with the village doctor and, after ordering them some breakfast, he returned to prepare the little invalid for their arrival. As he approached the room he was alarmed to hear Humphrey's voice raised, and still more, when little Miles, with a face of terror came running out. "Oh, Fardie, Fardie! will you come to Humphie? He's crying so, and he wants you to come directly!" "Crying so! What is the matter with him?" "Oh, I don't know? He began to cry and scream so when I said it!" "Said what--said what?" "Oh, Fardie, I was telling him that I heard Virginie tell some one he would be 'boiteux' all his life, and I _only_ asked him what it meant!" * * * * * Vainly all night long had Sir Everard tried to frame a sentence in which to convey the fatal news.