'I think I see,' put in her genuine nephew; 'you see, there isn't much light on the staircase outside, and you must have taken the "Flushington" over his oak to be "F. Lushington," and gone straight in, you know. They told me at the lodge that some ladies had been asking for me, and so when I didn't find you in my rooms, I thought I'd look in here on the chance--and here you all are, eh?' But the aunt was annoyed to find that she had been pouring out all her pent-up affection over a perfect stranger, and had eaten his lunch into the bargain. She almost feared she had put herself in a slightly ridiculous position, and this, of course, made her feel very angry with Flushington. 'Yes, yes, yes!' she said excitedly, 'that's all very well; but why did he deliberately encourage me in my mistake?' 'How was I to know it _was_ a mistake?' pleaded Flushington. 'You told me you were my aunt from Australia; for all I know Australia may be overrun with my aunts. I supposed you knew best.' 'But you asked affectionately after Samuel,' she persisted; 'you must have had some object in humouring my mistake.' 'You told me to ask after him, and I did,' said Flushington; 'what else could I do?' 'No, sir,' she said, rising in her wrath; 'it was a most ungentlemanly and heartless practical joke on your part, and--and I shall not listen to further excuses.' 'Oh, good gracious!' Flushington almost whimpered; 'a practical joke! _me_, oh, it really is _too_ bad!' 'My dear aunt,' Lushington assured her, 'he's quite incapable of such a thing; it's a mistake on both sides; he wouldn't wish to intercept another fellow's aunt.' 'I wouldn't do such a thing for worlds!' protested Flushington, sincerely enough; he would not have robbed a fellow creature of a single relation of the remotest degree; and as for carrying off an aunt and a complete set of female cousins, he would have blushed (and, in fact, did blush) at the bare suspicion. The cousins themselves had been laughing and whispering together all this time, regarding their new relation with shy admiration, very different from the manner in which they had looked at poor Flushington; the old nurse, too, was overjoyed at the exchange, and now declared that from the minute she set eyes on Flushington, she had felt something inside tell her that her Master Frank would never have turned out so undersized as _him_! 'Well,' said the aunt, mollified at last, 'you must forgive us for having disturbed you like this, Mr. a--Flushington' (the unfortunate man murmured that he did not mind it _now_); 'and now, Frank, my boy, I should like the girls to see _your_ rooms.' 'Come along then,' said he. 'Will you let me give you something to eat?--I'll run down and see what they can let me have; and perhaps you'll kindly help me to lay the cloth; _I_ never can lay the thing straight myself, and my old bedmaker's out of the way, as usual.'