But don't let me disturb your supper; I beg that you will sit down again." "And I beg you, sir," said Ralph, "to sit down with us." "Well," said the doctor, smiling, "I am hungry, and my own supper-time is passed.

You seem to have plenty of room for a guest." "Oh, yes, indeed, sir," said Miriam, who had already taken a fancy to the doctor's genial face.

"Phoebe thought we were a large family, and you can take the seat of one of the grown-up sons, or the daughter's chair, or the place that was intended for either the little boy or little girl, or perhaps you would like the governess' seat." At this Phoebe turned her face to the wall and giggled.
"A fine imagination," said the doctor, "and what is better, a bountiful meal.

Please consider me, for the present, the smallest boy, who might naturally be supposed to have the biggest appetite." "It would have been funnier," said Miriam, gravely, "if you had been the governess." The supper was a lively one; the three appetites were excellent; the doctor was in his jolliest mood, and Ralph and Miriam were delighted with him.

On his part, he could not help looking upon it in the light of a joke--an agreeable one, however--that these two young people, one of them a mere child, should constitute the new Cobhurst family.