The child stepped up to him with perfect composure, and held out her
little hand, which her uncle took, undergoing all the while a severe
scrutiny from the pair of dark eyes fixed upon him. There was dead
silence in the room. Sir Edward's companions were delighting in the
scene, and his great discomfiture only heightened their enjoyment.

"Well," he said at length, rather feebly, "I think you know the look of
me now, don't you? Where is your nurse? Ought you not to be in your bed?
This is not the place for little girls, you know."

"I was thinking you would kiss me," and the child's lips began to
quiver, while a pink flush rose to her cheeks, and she glanced wistfully
round, in the hope of seeing some sympathetic face near her.

But Sir Edward could not bring himself to do this. Laying his hand on
the curly head raised to his, he patted it as he might his dog, and
said,--

"There, there! Now you have introduced yourself to me, you can run away.
What is your name? Millicent, isn't it?"

"Milly is my name. And are all these gentlemen my uncles too?"

The tone of doubtful inquiry was too much for the little company, and
Milly's question was answered by a shout of laughter.

Again the child's face flushed, and then a grey-haired man stepped
forward.