"Miss Sarah is here, mum," said the old nurse, pointing severely towards the door of the sitting-room. "Miss Sarah--oh, the child! Eh, well, my dear," going into the room, and taking Sarah’s limp and shaking hand, "I’m sorry to come on such an errand the first time ever I see you; but that was your pore pa’s fault, not mine. I never was one to turn my back on my own flesh and blood--never, though perhaps I say it that shouldn’t; but your pore pa, he was that awkward when he got a crotchet into his ’ead, that there was no doing aught with him. I think you favour your ma, my dear," she continued, with a complete change of tone. "Your pore pa-- Eh? What? oh, the cab! Yes, I’ll come," and then she bustled out, fumbling at the fastening of a small leather bag which hung over her wrist, and leaving poor Sarah struck dumb with astonishment. The child crept to the door and watched her new-found aunt settle with the cabman; and it is certain that never had Sarah seen a cabman settled with in that fashion before. They had not indulged in many cabs during the course of her short life; but, on the few occasions that they had enjoyed such luxuries, her father had paid for them with the air of a prince, and with a liberality such as made dispute out of the question. Alas, poor child! if the loving father now lying white and silent in the room above had had less of that princely air, and still less of that princely instinct of hospitality and generosity, life would at that moment probably have been very different for her. But all this was beyond Sarah, who was very young, and therefore not likely to see the advantages of the lengthened haggling process going on just then at the gate. A moment later Mrs. Stubbs entered the house again in triumph. "Lot of thieving vagabonds them cabmen are, to be sure!" she remarked, with an air of indignation mingled with satisfaction. "But he don’t get the better of me, not if I know it; and so I told him. But, dear! dear! _’Ow_ like your pore ma you are, child! Stubbs ’ll be glad of it--he never could abide him as is gone, pore thing! Well, well, we needn’t say aught again him now, for he won’t trouble us no more; only, as I say, Stubbs ’ll be glad of it." "Please, who _is_ Mr. Stubbs?" Sarah asked plaintively, feeling instinctively that she had better not try to argue with this strange relative. Mrs. Stubbs, however, was so taken aback at so unexpected a question, that she was obliged to sit down, the better to show the extent of her astonishment. "Well, I don’t ’old with it!" she exclaimed to the nurse, who had come in to spread the cloth for a cup of tea which the visitor had expressed herself able and willing to take. "It’s bringing up the child like a ’eathen in ignorance of what her own flesh and blood’s very names is--’pon my word it is; it’s ’eathenish." "_Miss Sarah_ doesn’t understand," put in the old nurse pointedly.