don't," he said. " Leave the young ladies
alone, Doctor. I don't want 'em to disperse,
as you call it. We've got things of
our own to talk of."

The Doctor seemed abashed at this set
down, and to be really in awe of the
young man. He turned away without a
word.

Then Lord Shipton came up. "I want
you to come out and see us, Mr. Leader,"
he said. " The air at Shipton will do you
good. I want you to fix two or three
days. We have no state, no baronial
magnificence, no splendid carriages and
horses, like some potentates. I am content
to till my own little plot, and try and be
happy in my little way." He had put his
finger on the coat-collar of the young man,
and was gradually drawing him to the
window. " I know your father and mother
well, and I knew the late people better.
My girls told me to be sure and make you
fix. You see our friend Findlater here,"
continued his lordship, with an ingenious
depreciation, " is very well in his way. And
don't we all, who are amateurs of beauty,
admire his pretty girls? I declare I am
in love with them both. Wonderfully
creditable to him," added his lordship,
dropping his voice, " to have brought
them up as he has done, and to have made
such a rise!"

It will be seen from this what loyalty
there was in this nobleman; but the truth
was, he had wares of his own to offer to
the noble stranger. The Doctor, having an
instinct of danger, bore down swiftly, and
rescued his property.

It was a delightful night for him who
was made the hero. They had their little
romping small plays, which Mr. Leader
enjoyed a great deal, though he found it a little
difficult to grasp the principles. Later,
he hesitatingly mentioned to Polly that he
knew a far better, a most wonderful game,
that would make every one die laughing.
This was called, he said, the Pedlar of
Plupton, and consisted, as far as could
be made out, in some one going out of
the room, and repeating a formula that
ran, " Pop, pip, the piping pedlar of
Plupton!" then, forming a procession,
when every one walked round, repeating
the same incantation. He could not recal
the necessary acts which led to these
successive repetitions of the formula, but he
said " that did not much matter, as it
would all come right." Polly, exuberant in
her spirits, actually clapped her hands, and
flew, dancing round, to tell Peter. " Mr.
Leader, Peter, has got a game he wants to
teach us. Come, stand round quickly, and
listen."

"Well, well," said the Doctor, apparently
put out, " Coaxey, dear, you are the
most irrepressible creature that ever danced
on the earth! What do you want us to
do?"

"Oh, you must play, Peter, dear, and Lord
Shipton too, and Mr. Cecil will teach us.
It's such a beautiful game!"

The Doctor threw his eyes up, with,
"Well, after that!" and suffered himself
to be led away for instruction. The game,
indeed, though strictly too incoherent to
deserve that title, seemed, as a gentleman
remarked later, " to have neither head, nor
tail, nor middle." Mr. Leader stopping
every moment to say in an agony of doubt,
"No, that's not it, I know. You all say,
'Pop, pip, the piping pedlar of Plupton.'"

"Well, that's simple enough," said Mr.
Webber. " Who's to be the pedlar?"

"Oh, yes! the pedlar sits in a chair, and
then we all go round and say together,
' Pop, pip, &c.'"

"How funny!" said the delighted Polly,
rushing about, and dragging every one into
his or her place. " Now, Mr. Leader and
I shall give the word."

CHAPTER XIX. A CLOUD BETWEEN THE SISTERS.

But, somehow, with this indistinct notice,
the thing would not work. In vain all the
grown-up people walked round, repeating
the incantation, " Pop, pip," and certainly
looking very foolish as they did so, but it
went no further. Mr. Webber grinned at
Lord Shipton, who kept holding out his
hands and asking softly, " Well, what am
I to do? Tell me, Miss Polly; this is a
very funny game."

The young man was greatly mortified,
and our Katey felt for him, as she went up
to him, and, fixing those earnest eyes of
hers on him, said with all her heart,
"Indeed, Mr. Leader, it is a very funny
game, and when we know it better I am
sure it will go off well."

He looked at her gratefully. " You
understand it; you see how it goes."

"Oh! and Polly, too," said she,
hesitatingly. " Polly is so clever at these
things!"

Poor, sweet Katey! who by the mere
power of unselfishness, seemed to pass into
the soul of her sister, and think only of and
for her.

But now "the materials" came up on