'Will you cover me with leaves, if I am lost, Bobbie?' said Mr.
Audley; but as soon as she found that his attention was gained, she
returned to the charge.

'Please, did it come from your own home? and what is it, really?'

'Why, Bobbie, I am hardly prepared to say whether it is a Hamburg or
a Houdan, or a more unambitious Dorking. Cannot you eat in comfort
without being certified?'

'The species will be enough for her without the varieties,' said her
father. 'You have given us a new experience, you see, Audley, and we
may make a curious study of contrasts--not of Audley and myself
Mother dear, but of the two Underwoods who seem to be in this place
together to-day.'

'Who is it?' was of course the cry, and the inquiry was in Mrs.
Underwood's eyes, though it did not pass her quiet lips. It was to
her that he answered, 'Yes, my dear--Tom; I have little doubt that it
is he. He was a very rich man when last I heard of him.'

'Is that the man at Vale Leston?' whispered Alda to Felix.

'Oh, I hope he is not coming here to insult us.'

'Bosh!' said Felix; 'that man's name is Fulbert. Listen, if you want
to hear.'

'Twenty years ago,' continued Mr. Underwood, 'I thought myself a
prodigiously fine fellow--with my arms full of prizes at Harrow, and