"Yes, and he's been just as kind to me, Mother. As I told you when I wrote, he had ordered an enormous outfit, which will, I am sure, cost hundreds of pounds. He makes me go to the playhouses, and all sorts of amusements; and all the time he has been so kind he scolds, and grumbles, and predicts that I shall be hanged." "I'm sure you won't," Kate, his youngest sister, said indignantly. "How can he say such a thing?" "He doesn't mean it," Charlie laughed. "It's only his way. He will go on just the same way with you, I have no doubt; but you mustn't mind, you know, and mustn't laugh, but must look quite grave and serious. "Ah! Here he is. "Oh, Uncle, this is kind of you!" "Hold your tongue, sir," said his uncle, "and try and learn not to speak to your elders, unless you are addressed. "Niece Mary," he said, kissing her upon the forehead, "I am glad to see you again. You are not so much changed as I expected. "And these are my grandnieces, Elizabeth and Kate, though why Kate I don't know. It is a fanciful name, and new to the family, and I am surprised that you didn't call her Susanna, after your grandmother." Kate made a little face at the thought of being called Susanna. However, a warning glance from Charlie closed her lips, just as she was about to express her decided preference for her own name. Mr. Tufton kissed them both, muttering to himself: "I suppose I ought to kiss them. Girls always expect to be kissed at every opportunity. "What are you laughing at, grandniece?" "I don't think girls expect to be kissed, except by people they like," Kate said; "but we do like kissing you, Uncle," throwing her arms round his neck, and kissing him heartily; "because you have been so kind to Charlie, and have brought us up to see him again." "You have disarranged my white tie, Niece," Mr. Tufton said, extricating himself from Kate's embrace. "Niece Mary, I fear that you have not taught your daughters to restrain their emotions, and there is nothing so dreadful as emotional women." "Perhaps I have not taken so much pains with their education, in that way, as in some others," Mrs. Marryat said, smiling. "But of course, Uncle, if you object to be kissed, the girls will abstain from doing so." "No," Mr. Tufton said, thoughtfully. "It is the duty of nieces to kiss their uncles, in moderation--in moderation, mind--and it is the duty of the uncles to receive those salutations, and I do not know that the duty is altogether an unpleasant one. I am, myself, unaccustomed to be kissed, but it is an operation to which I may accustom myself, in time." "I never heard it called an operation, Uncle," Lizzie said demurely; "but I now understand the meaning of the phrase of a man's undergoing a painful operation. I used to think it meant cutting off a leg, or something of that sort, but I see it's much worse." Her uncle looked at her steadily.