what confidence I have in you as a gentleman,
Leader, see here." And he threw up
the window, and in a stentorian voice
shouted, " Katey, Katey, I want ye!"

The young girl was nearly out of sight,
but she turned, and tripped back again.
When she was under the window, he said,
"Step up, dear, a moment." She hesitated,
but obeyed. " I declare I didn't think
she'd have come up! Hallo! What's the
meaning of this?"

Katey was at the door, shy, frightened,
half inclined to run away down-stairs, the
situation almost scaring her.

"Here's th' invaleede at home, Katey,"
said her father. " He'll be as sound as a
glass of old sherry in another week."

' Oh, I am so glad!" said she, eagerly.
' Polly was wondering only this morning
when you would be perfectly well."

"Oh, I am all right now," said the
young man. " I am so glad you have come
up to see me. I wanted to show you my
room and my things. How is Miss Polly?"

"Polly's always well. I'd like to see
the sickness that'd meddle with her! I'd
rout him before you'd write five scrawls of
a prescrip. Ah, look at that!" said the
Doctor, in delight. " If there isn't Billy
in the street. Don't mind me a second.
I'll be up again. Billy has some joke in
his head, or I'm no Irishman."

The Doctor had bounded out like a boy.

"I never met with such a funny creature
as Peter," said the young man; " he's
always up to sport."

"Oh," said Katey, earnestly, "he's
delightful, if you only saw enough of him.
Talk of Theodore Hook or Mr. Sidney
Smith, people from London have told us
that Peter is beyond them miles. And oh,
Mr. Cecil, we have heard about your
bravery, and the gallant way you behaved
to the attorney officer. How you put him
down at mess —"

"Oh, your father backed me up," he
said, much pleased. " But are they talking
of me ?"

"No; but we were so anxious. Polly was
for running in here herself. Such a fright as
she was in all the morning. Those people
with high spirits are always excitable. Now
I can bring back word that it is all right."

"Nonsense," said the young man; " she
don't care."

"But she does," said Katey, very
earnestly. " You have seen her ardour and
spirit; she throws herself heart and soul
into everything. Peter always says that
Polly must like or hate."

"And tell me, Miss Katey," said the
young man, bashfully, " what do you do?
Do you love or hate?"

"Oh, Mr. Cecil, Peter says I want
character, and I am sure he is right."

"But, you don't hate me, I hope?"

Katey laughed. " 'Deed no, Mr. Cecil;
we both like you: and Polly says we have
never had such fun as since you came.
Isn't Polly made to be liked, Mr. Cecil?
Did you ever see a girl so natural, so
brilliant, and so unspoiled by admiration?
If you only knew the compliments that
are paid her. Lord Shipton was wildly in
love, only he said he was too old."

"What a sister you are!" said he, in
admiration. " I never heard of one sticking
up so splendidly for another as you do.
They're generally so jealous."

Katey opened her fine, soft eyes. " Sisters
jealous! Perhaps up in London. I
don't understand their ways."

"I am sure you don't," he said, eagerly.
"I so like this talking to you. It makes
me feel so pleasant. Won't you come
again, and pay me a regular visit?" She
looked a little taken back, so he added,
hastily, " And I like to hear you talk of
Miss Polly. You do it so nicely!"

Here was something to take home – a
glorious concrete foundation on which to
build. Her heart actually leaped within
her, and her cheeks flushed.

"But tell me," said the young man
abruptly, " what's this about you and that
parson's son, that Clarke, I think they
call him?"

"Oh, poor Tom!" she said with that tone
of earnestness that so became her: " no one
minds him, or me. He is a very good,
honest boy - a fine fellow, too."

"But isn't he quite a countrified, rustic
sort of fellow –  I suppose has never been
out of this parish? He's not fit for you!"

"Ah! he is," said Katey, pleadingly.
"'Deed he is. He's a fine spirit under all,
that noble lad. Fit for me! Surely what
am I, to take airs, Mr. Leader? If it was
Polly, indeed - why papa says, if she was
sent up to the queen's own drawing-room,
she'd have all the dukes and marquises
running after her. Many of the great ladies,
he says, would give all their diamonds
and pearls, for her eyes, and bright
complexion. Oh, if you saw her dressed, full
dressed, as she went to the grand ball old
Sir Thomas gave not long before he died!
Oh, she was splendid!"

Katey grew so brilliant herself, as she
dwelt on the charms of her sister, that