"Here are several letters for _you_, Kate," said her brother, picking out several of them. The very first she took up, it having attracted her attention by the double seal, and the vulgar style of the handwriting, was that from Titmouse, which has just been laid before the reader. With much surprise she opened the letter, her brother being similarly engaged with his own; and her face getting gradually paler and paler as she went on, at length she flung it on the floor with a passionate air, and burst into tears. Her brother, with astonishment, exclaimed--"Dear Kate, what is it?" and he rose and stooped to pick up the letter. "Don't--don't, Charles!" she cried, putting her foot upon it, and flinging her arms round his neck. "It is an audacious letter--a vulgar, a cruel letter, dear Charles!" Her emotion increased as her thoughts recurred to the heartless paragraph concerning her brother with which the letter concluded. "I could have overlooked everything but _that_," said she, unwittingly. With gentle force he succeeded in getting hold of the painfully ridiculous and contemptible effusion. He attempted faintly to smile several times as he went on. "Don't--don't, dearest Charles!" said she, passionately. "I can't bear it!--Don't smile!--It's very far from your heart; you do it only to assure _me_!" Here Mr. Aubrey read the paragraph concerning himself. His face turned a little paler than before, and his lips quivered with suppressed emotion. "He is evidently a _very_ foolish fellow!" he exclaimed, walking towards the window, with his back to his sister, whom he did not wish to see how much he was affected by so petty an incident. "What does he allude to, Kate, when he talks of your having spoken angrily to him, and that he did not know you?" he inquired, after a few moments' pause, returning to her. "Oh, dear!--I am so _grieved_ that you should have noticed it--but since you ask I will not deceive you!" and she told him the disgusting occurrence alluded to in the letter. Mr. Aubrey drew himself up unconsciously as Kate went on, and she perceived him becoming still paler than before, and _felt_ the kindling anger of his eye. "Forget it--forget it, dearest Charles!--So despicable a being is really not worth a thought," said Kate, with increasing anxiety; for she had never in her life before witnessed her brother the subject of such powerful emotions as then made rigid his slender frame. At length drawing a long breath-- "It is fortunate for him, Kate," said he, calmly, "that _he_ is not a gentleman, and that I _endeavor to be_--a Christian." She flung her arms round him, exclaiming, "There spoke my own noble brother!"