Duke planted his thin little legs very wide apart and stared. He liked the idea of that bit of gold without any special certainty as to what it was, but he did not approach too close to a man whose appearance did not satisfy his perceptions. “I don’t know you,” he said, “I don’t know you a bit. I never saw any one the least like you. Do you mean that you’re my uncle? What are bits of Australian gold like?” “They are very much like sovereigns,” said Ralph. Duke’s legs involuntarily brought him a little nearer. “You are not like the rest of the gentlemen,” said Duke. “You are very queerly dressed. I don’t think you can be my uncle. But I should like to see the Australian gold.” Australian was a big mouthful for such a small boy. He got over it in syllables and with an effort. “Look here,” said Ralph, repeating the manœuvre which he had tried with Saunders. Only he twanged the sovereign into the air with his thumb and caught it this time in the palm of his own hand. Duke watched the coin with the greatest interest and drew near to look at it, but did not put forth his own little hand. “It’s just money,” he said, in a tone of half disappointment, half contempt. Then he added, “Should I have that to spend if--if you gave it me, you know.” “Oh yes, you should have it to spend. You shall have it when you come and shake hands with your uncle,” said Ralph. The boy came nearer. Then paused again and said, “I’m sure you can’t be Lord Frogmore.” “Why not?” said Ralph, with his big laugh. Duke looked at him critically and seriously, “Because you don’t look like a----, because I don’t think you’re a----.” What he wanted to say was that his new acquaintance was not a gentleman. Duke thought he was like the keepers. One of the grooms in his Sunday clothes had very much the air of this strange person who caught the sovereign in his hand in that clever way. But little Duke did not like to suggest, looking up into a big man’s face, that he was not a gentleman. So he stopped and stared, almost forgetting the Australian gold in this perplexity which was an experience not at all familiar to him. “Not like a lord?” said Ralph. “How do you know? I don’t suppose you know many lords, do you, little man? I might be a duke for aught you know.” The little boy stared again less assured. He had not been used to think of lords as a different species, but he had never known a duke. It was well within the limits of possibility that a duke might be like a gamekeeper. The species was unknown to little Marmaduke Parke. “Are you a duke?” he asked with much seriousness and eyes very keen and sharp in the study of the new species. Ralph burst into a big laugh. “No,” he said, “my little man, but I’m your uncle. Not Lord Frogmore, but one of the other side. I’m your Uncle Ralph. Come and shake hands.”