He is so big, poor dear old boy, that nobody ever gives him a mount--" "Yes ?" "Well, then, I should like to be able to have some nice parties--dancing and theatricals, and that sort of thing, for Barbara--father will never hardly let us have a soul here--and to buy her some pretty dresses to set off her beauty--" "Yes ?" "And then I should like to have a nice, large, cheerful house, where mother could come and stay with me, for two or three months at a time, and get _clear_ away from the worries of house-keeping and--" the tyranny of father, I am about to add, but pull myself up with a jerk, and substitute lamely and stammeringly "and--and--others." "Any thing else ?" "I should not at all mind a donkey-carriage for Tou Tou, but I shall not _insist_ upon that." He is smiling broadly now.

The shade has fled away, and only sunshine remains.
"And what for yourself?
you seem to have forgotten yourself!" "For myself!" I echo, in surprise, "I have been telling you--you cannot have been listening--all these things are for myself." Again he has turned his face half away.
"I hope you will get your wish," he says shortly and yet heartily.
I laugh.

"That is so probable, is not it?
I am so likely to fall in with a rich young man of weak intellect who is willing to marry all the whole six of us, for that is what he would have to do, and so I should explain to him." Sir Roger is looking at me again with an odd smile--not disagreeable in any way--not at all hold-cheap, or as if he were sneering at me for a simpleton, but merely _odd_.
"And you think," he says, "that when he hears what is expected of him he will withdraw ?" Again I laugh heartily and rather loudly, for the idea tickles me, and, in a large family, one gets into the habit of raising one's voice, else one is not heard.
"I am so sadly sure that he will never come forward, that I have never taken the trouble to speculate as to whether, if he did, my greediness would make him retire again." No answer.
"Now that I come to think of it, though," continue I, after a pause, "I have no manner of doubt that he would." Apparently Sir Roger is tired of the subject of my future prospects, for he drops it.

We have left the kitchen-garden--have passed through the flower-garden--have reached the hall-door.

I am irresolutely walking up the stone steps that mount to it, not being able to make up my mind as to whether or no I should make some sort of farewell observation to my companion, when his voice follows me.