CHAPTER XVI.

A happy time at home-Alfred's high spirits-His schoolfellows' interest in the Duke of X- Alfred's description of himThe ideal and the real-The kindness of the Duke of Xto Alfred.

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T length Theodora was home again, leaving behind her Prospect House, and all the stocking-mending and other disagreeables of her situation. It was not until she was once more at Chatterton, and was surrounded on all sides by the kind attentions of friends and acquaintances, and bowed and curtsied to by all the villagers, that she quite realized the difference of her position, as what Isabel Howard had called an 'under scrub.' She seemed to have two distinct lives; and she was only too glad to try and forget as soon as possible, if but for a time, her life at Mrs. Toogood's establishment.

Alfred was home for his holidays also. He had nothing to tell of his school, his studies, and companions, but what was pleasant. Theodora felt perfectly happy; and in the outburst of her affection and confidence, she felt

inclined to tell forth various particulars of her late experience. But she had judgment to check herself, and it was well she did; for there is nothing more difficult than to tell half, or a part, of what cannot all be told. So Mrs. Astley imagined, from Theodora's reticence, that all things went on smoothly at Prospect House.

'You look thin, though, my child,' said she. 'I fear you are kept to the house too much.’

'No, indeed. I walk out nearly every day with the rest, mamma; indeed, I have sometimes to go alone with the younger girls.'

'What an important person!' said Mrs. Astley.

'Oh, by-the-bye, Theo,' said Alfred, 'one of our fellows has a sister who is going to Mrs. Toogood's. I suppose she will go after these holidays. No end of a fellow !' 'Who-the sister?' asked Theodora.

'No, of course, the brother. He is my great chum at school.'

'What is his name?'

'Leigh. A first-rate fellow he is. I hope we shall go up for our "exam" at the same time. You can have no idea, Theo, what a fellow he is. I only wish you knew him.' 'Is his sister as first-rate as himself?' asked Theodora. 'Oh, of course, she is; indeed, Leigh says she is. She is-'

'No end of a fellow,' suggested Theodora.

'Well, you know what I mean; and I have no doubt she is capital. So you and she must be friends, Theo, as Leigh is my friend, you see.'

'Yes,' said Theodora, thinking there was very little probability of any such friendship coming to pass at Prospect House.

'I say, mother,' said Alfred presently, 'is the old Duke really my godfather?'

'Did he tell you that he is?' asked Mrs. Astley; and when Alfred answered yes, she added, 'I am glad he has remembered it. Your dear father supposed that he had forgotten that he ever stood sponsor to you; and neither he nor I would have reminded Lord Barrington of the fact.'

'Well, you know, I didn't believe it when he said so; I thought he was chaffing; and I told him I should ask you.'

'He must have thought you rude, I am afraid, my dear,' said Mrs. Astley.

'Oh, Theo,' resumed Alfred, turning to his sister, 'you would have laughed had you been there when first Mr. Westley-that's one of the masters-mentioned the Duke's name as my friend before the boys. Some of them were so rich!-not all of course. They came round me full' of questions. Did I really know the Duke of X? Had I actually spoken to him? What was he like? How did he speak? How does he dress? Is he immensely tall?

'When you have quite finished your questions I'll begin to answer them,' I said. "Yes; he is immensely tall-about seven feet high, I should think; but that is nothing for a duke. His voice is like the roaring of thunder. He never

Excitement to see the Duke of X—.

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smiles, but knits his brows and contradicts everybody who speaks. He carries such lots of money in all his pockets that they are continually bursting, and letting it tumble out. And, of course, he dresses as all dukes dress. ""How is that?" asked Jones, a fellow who never knows how to sit or stand, or do anything comfortably.

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Why, in his robes of course," I said. "Do you mean to say you have never seen a duke ?"'

"For shame, Alfred,' said his mother. 'Wait a bit,' Alfred went on.

'About a week after this

I got a note from the Duke, saying that he was coming to Southsea; and the very same day he came, and called for me to go out with him. He asked me if I would like to take one of my friends with me, and I said yes, and Leigh came. Well, Jones and the others were wild to see the Duke. They would have done anything to get a sight of him; but they did not dare make their way into the drawing-room. As we went out of the hall door, there were the boys hanging over the banisters like clothes hung out to dry; but the first person who went out of the drawing-room was the master, and as soon as he appeared, the boys all shot back into the schoolroom. I believe you know, the under masters were there too; and nobody got a sight of the Duke after all.'

'I am glad they did not,' said Theodora, laughing. 'It served them right.'

The old Duke took us

'Wait a bit,' said Alfred again. into Portsmouth, and gave us a blow-out at the fruiterer's, Riley's; and then, as we were going across the common, I

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saw the whole lot of them coming towards us.

"Here

are our fellows, I declare," said I, nudging Leigh, and we both of us burst out laughing; so that the Duke said—

""What is it? What's the joke, boys?"

I was obliged to tell him, for he stopped short to hear; and just as I had finished, the boys came up; and the Duke shouted out loud with laughter, and then he gave me such a slap on the back as made me jump. I could not help laughing myself when I saw him so jolly, and dressed as much like a farmer as anything else. And there was Jones so beside himself with surprise that he stood still, gaping with his mouth open, so that all the rest passed him, and Mr. Westley had to prog him on with his stick before he had sense enough to move. I have never heard the end of that,' concluded Alfred. 'Jones was in an awful wax about it; and the Duke is always at me for the description I gave of him.'

'It is a great thing for you, I am sure, my dear, that the Duke of X— is so kind to you; it will be the making of you, Alfred; and you ought to be very grateful.' Alfred thought for a few minutes; then he said— 'Yes, he is certainly very kind, and I like him very much; but I wish he was not a duke, mother. That is the bore of it; the boys are always making such a fuss, asking me what he says, and what he does, as if I could remember. He told me one day that I was called George after him.'

'So you were.'

'I had almost forgotten that my name was George;