"Ring for Phillis.

The child has been ill, Sir Edwin, and Mrs.Grey has made herself a perfect slave to him." "How very--ahem!--charming!" said Sir Edwin Uniacke.
Phillis appeared, but Arthur clung tighter than ever to his step-mother's neck.

Nor did she wish to release him.
"I thank you, no.

I can carry him quite easily," she replied to Sir Edwin's politely offered help, which was, indeed, the only sentence she had attempted to exchange with him.

With her boy in her arms she quitted the room, and did not return thither all the afternoon.
It was impossible she could.