"Ah, yes, he's very gentlemanly. Well, I'm sure I hope they'll be happy; but there's always something in married life, and you do well to keep out of it; but, of course, you are so young yet." "Yes," he said, with a grave, old-looking smile, "I am so young yet." "You don't know what a family is, Mr Bayle. There's always something; when it isn't measles it's scarlatina, and when it isn't scarlatina it's boots and shoes." "Oh, but children are a deal of comfort, Sophia," said the doctor, coming up after whispering to Mrs Luttrell that his sister looked grumpy. "Some children may be, Joseph--mine are not," sighed Mrs Trampleasure, and the doctor went back to his wife. "Ah, Mr Bayle, if I were to tell you one-half of the troubles I've been through I should harass you." "Kitty," said the doctor, "I want everything to go well to-night. Try and coax Sophia away, she's forcing her doldrums on Mr Bayle." "But how am I to get her away, dear? You know what she is." "Try to persuade her to taste the brandy cherries, or we shall be having her in tears. I'll come and help you." They walked back to where Mrs Trampleasure was still talking away hard in a querulous voice. "Ah! you've come back, Joseph," she said, cutting short her remarks to the curate to return to her complaint to her brother. "I was saying that some children are a pleasure; but it did not seem as if you could listen to me." "My dear Sophia, I'll listen to you all night, but Kitty wants you to give your opinion about some brandy cherries." "My opinion?" said the lady loudly. "I have no opinion. I never taste such luxuries." Millicent could not help hearing a portion of her aunt's querulous remarks, and, out of sheer pity for one of the recipients, she turned to her Uncle Trampleasure, who always kept on the other side of the room. "Uncle, dear," she said, "aunt is murmuring so. Do try and stop it." "Stop it, my dear?" he said smiling sadly. "Ah, if you knew your aunt as well as I do you would never check her murmurs; they carry off her ill-temper. No, no, my dear, it would be dangerous to stop it. I always let it go on." There was no need to check Mrs Trampleasure after all. Mr Bayle threw himself into the breach, and made her forget her own troubles by consulting her about some changes that he proposed making in the parish. That changed the course of her thoughts, and in the intervals of the music, and often during the progress of some song, she alluded to different matters that had given her annoyance ever since she had been a girl. It was not an agreeable duty, that of keeping Mrs Trampleasure amused, but Millicent rewarded him with a grateful smile, and Bayle was content. There was a pleasant little supper that was announced unpleasantly just as Miss Heathery had consented to sing again, and was telling the assembly in a bird-like voice how gaily the troubadour touched his guita-h-ah, as he was hastening home from the wah.