I'm getting an old man." "Eh, Uncle Clegg, you're worth twenty dead ones yet," said Mrs.
Mesurier, reassuringly.
"What a strange old gentleman!" said Mrs.Turtle, somewhat bewildered, as this family apparition left the room.
"Good-bye, Uncle Clegg," Esther was heard singing in the hall.
"Good-bye, be careful of the steps.

Good-bye.

Give our love to Aunt Esther." Then the door would bang, and the whole house breathe a gigantic sigh of humorous relief.
(This was the kind of thing girls at home had to put up with!) "Well, mother, did you ever see such a funny old person ?" said Esther, on her return to the parlour.
"You mustn't laugh at him," Mrs.Mesurier would say, laughing herself; "he's a good old man." "No doubt he's good enough, mother dear; but he's unmistakably funny," Esther would reply, with a whimsical thought of the family tree.

Yes, they were a distinguished race!.