Miss Sibyl was the first to pronounce an opinion on the Baby's attributes.

Said she, in a solemn whisper, "What a heavenly mournful expression! it seems so grieved to have left the angels!" THE REV.

JOHN.--"That is prettily said, Cousin Sibyl; but the infant must pluck up its courage and fight its way among mortals with a good heart, if it wants to get back to the angels again.

And I think it will; a fine child." He took it from the nurse, and moving it deliberately up and down, as if to weigh it, said cheerfully, "Monstrous heavy! by the time it is twenty it will be a match for a prize-fighter of fifteen stone!" Therewith he strode to Gordon, who as if to show that he now considered himself wholly apart from all interest in the affairs of a family who had so ill-treated him in the birth of that Baby, had taken up the "Times" newspaper and concealed his countenance beneath the ample sheet.
The Parson abruptly snatched away the "Times" with one hand, and, with the other substituting to the indignant eyes of the _ci-devant_ heir-at-law the spectacle of the Baby, said, "Kiss it." "Kiss it!" echoed Chillingly Gordon, pushing back his chair--"kiss it! pooh, sir, stand off! I never kissed my own baby: I shall not kiss another man's.

Take the thing away, sir: it is ugly; it has black eyes." Sir Peter, who was near-sighted, put on his spectacles and examined the face of the new-born.