Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catch
his death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who
found Clement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and
preventing them from following the example of their valiant pioneer.
Felix, now thoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke,
entertained for a moment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of
course Bernard could not be silenced from his bold and rather
doubtful proclamation, that 'The funny boy made Felix black his own
face, and I wasn't afraid.'
'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'--and she reared up to
kiss him, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.
'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half
mystified.
'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'
'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable
name.'
'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had
never gone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the
little ones any longer. --Good-night, Angel; good-night, little star;
we'll not make a row to wake you again.'
Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but some
wonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night--a
reaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarily
reigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quite
as merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who really
was used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St.
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