Miss Charlotte Carlaw was awaiting the arrival of her nephew in the drawing room. "I'd have driven down, my dear boy, but I find I don't get any lighter as time goes on, and I thought you could possess your soul in patience until you saw me. Come here, giant. Lord! what a long time it seems since you first came into this house, a scrap of humanity I had to stoop to! And now you're so big as to make me feel uncomfortable; and your voice is deeper, and you've finished your school days. There, come and kiss a foolish old woman; I'm devilish proud of you, and I hear nothing but good reports of you. I've never said so before, but I say it now; it was the best day's work I ever did when I found you and brought you to London." "A good day for me, aunt," said Comethup, gratefully. "That's as it may be. I knew you'd got the right stuff in you, although if it hadn't been for the captain I should probably have ruined you. And how is the captain?" Comethup assured her that the captain was well, and wished to be held in remembrance by the best woman in the world. "So that's what he says of me, is it?" said Miss Charlotte Carlaw, laughing, and rocking herself over the head of her stick "You might have told him I was the happiest woman, if that's got anything to do with it. Well, did you meet any one else down in Sleepy Hollow?" "Yes," said Comethup slowly, as if labouring under deep thought, "I met my old playfellow, 'Linda." "Oho! And what's our old playfellow like by this time? Grown old and ugly--eh?" "Oh, no," replied Comethup, with a short laugh. "I think--the captain thinks--she's rather pretty." "Oh, the captain thinks so, does he? And what does Prince Charming think? There, you needn't be afraid to tell me anything; you wouldn't be a boy, and you wouldn't be your mother's son, if you didn't fall over head and ears in love with some one. And I suppose you've said all sorts of pretty things to each other, and she's given you a ribbon or a flower, or something or other, and you----" "No, indeed," said Comethup. "She hasn't given me anything." "Then you're both of you devilish backward for your ages, that's all I can say. Did you kiss her?" "Y--yes," said Comethup slowly.