'I must go,' said Gilbert, as they walked home, 'I wish papa would
listen to anything.'

'He would not wish you to hurt yourself.'

'When papa says a thing--' began Gilbert.

'Well, Gilbert, you are quite right, and I hope you don't think I
mean to teach you disobedience. But I do desire you, on my own
responsibility, not to go and catch an inflammation in your jaw.
I'll undertake papa.'

Gilbert at once became quite another creature. He discoursed so
much, that she had to make him restore the handkerchief to his mouth;
he held open the gate, showed her a shoal of minnows, and tried to
persuade her to come round the garden before going in, but she
clapped her hands at him, and hunted him back into the warm room,
much impressed and delighted by his implicit obedience to his father.
With Lucy and Sophy, his remaining seemed likewise to make a great
sensation; they looked at Mrs. Kendal and whispered, and were
evidently curious as to the result of her audacity. Albinia, who had
grown up with her brother Maurice and cousin Frederick, was more used
to boys than to girls, and was already more at ease with her son than
her daughters.

Gilbert lent a ready hand with hammer and chisel, and boxes were
opened, to the great delight and admiration of the girls. They were
all very happy and busy setting things to rights, but Albinia was in
difficulty how to bestow her books. There was an unaccountable