'Is that your complaint, Charlie? What next?' said Mary.

'So you think I have my way, do you, Mary? That is all envy, you see,
and very much misplaced. Could you guess what a conflict it is every
time I am helped up that mountain of a staircase, or the slope of my
sofa is altered? Last time Philip stayed here, every step cost an
argument, till at last, through sheer exhaustion, I left myself a dead
weight on his hands, to be carried up by main strength. And after all,
he is such a great, strong fellow, that I am afraid he did not mind it;
so next time I _crutched_ myself down alone, and I hope that did
provoke him.'

'Sir Guy is so kind that I am ashamed,' said Mrs. Edmonstone. 'It
seems as if we had brought him for the sole purpose of waiting on
Charles.'

'Half his heart is in his horse,' said Charles. 'Never had man such
delight in the "brute creation."'

'They have been his chief playfellows,' said Mrs. Edmonstone. 'The
chief of his time was spent in wandering in the woods or on the beach,
watching them and their ways.'

'I fairly dreamt of that Elysium of his last night,' said Charles: 'a
swamp half frozen on a winter's night, full of wild ducks. Here,
Charlotte, come and tell Mary the roll of Guy's pets.'

Charlotte began. 'There was the sea-gull, and the hedgehog, and the
fox, and the badger, and the jay, and the monkey, that he bought