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“But here again Melchior was much troubled by his brothers and sisters. Just at the moment when he was wishing to look most fashionable and elegant, one or other of them would pull away the rug, or drop the glass, or quarrel, or romp, or do something that spoiled the effect. In fact, one and all, they ‘just spoilt everything;’ and the more he scolded, the worse they became. The ‘minx’ shook her curls, and flirted through the window with a handsome but ill-tempered looking man on a fine horse, who praised her ‘golden locks,’ as he called them; and oddly enough, when Melchior said that the man was a lout, and that the locks in question were corkscrewy carrot shavings, she only seemed to like the man and his compliments the more. Meanwhile, the untidy brother pored over his book, or if he came to the window, it was only to ridicule the fine ladies and gentlemen, so Melchior sent him to Coventry. Then Hop-o’-my-thumb had taken to make signs and exchange jokes with some disreputable-looking youths in a dog-cart; and when his brother would have put him to ‘sit still like a gentleman’ at the bottom of the coach, he seemed positively to prefer his low companions; and the rest were little better.

“Poor Melchior! Surely there never was a clearer case of a young gentleman’s comfort destroyed solely by other people’s perverse determination to be happy in their own way instead of in his.

“At last he lost patience, and pulling the check-string, bade Godfather Time drive as fast as he could.

“Godfather Time frowned, but shook his glass all the same, and away they went at a famous pace. All at once they came to a stop.

“‘Now for it,’ said Melchior; ‘here goes one at any rate.’

“Time called out the name of the second brother over his shoulder; and the boy stood up, and bade his brothers and sisters good-bye.

“‘It is time that I began to push my way in the world,’ said he, and passed out of the coach and in among the crowd.

“‘You have taken the only quiet boy,’ said Melchior to the godfather, angrily. ‘Drive fast, now, for pity’s sake; and let us get rid of the tiresome ones.’

“And fast enough they drove, and dropped first one and then the other; but the sisters, and the reading boy, and the youngest still remained.

“‘What are you looking at?’ said Melchior to the lame sister.

“‘At a strange figure in the crowd,’ she answered.

“‘I see nothing,’ said Melchior. But on looking again after a while, he did see a figure wrapped in a cloak, gliding in and out among the people, unnoticed, if not unseen.

“‘Who is it?’ Melchior asked of the godfather.

“‘A friend of mine,’ Time answered. ‘His name is Death.’

“Melchior shuddered, more especially as the figure had now come up to the coach, and put its hand in through the window, on which, to his horror, the lame sister laid hers and smiled. At this moment the coach stopped.

“‘What are you doing?’ shrieked Melchior. ‘Drive on! drive on!’

“But even while he sprang up to seize the check-string the door had opened, the pale sister’s face had dropped upon the shoulder of the figure in the cloak, and he had carried her away; and Melchior stormed and raved in vain.

“‘To take her, and to leave the rest! Cruel! cruel!’

“In his rage and grief, he hardly knew it when the untidy brother was called, and putting his book under his arm, slipped out of the coach without looking to the right or left. Presently the coach stopped again; and when Melchior looked up the door was open, and at it was the fine man on the fine horse, who was lifting the sister on to the saddle before him. ‘What fool’s game are you playing?’ said Melchior, angrily. ‘I know that man. He is both ill-tempered and a bad character.’