‘Bother your hunger! we can get something up at the château. If you want to shoot, say so; and if you don’t, you’d better go back to Rille, for there’s no other amusement for you at St. Pucelle.’ I could not imagine why he should be so cross with the lad, and Tessie and Ange seemed as puzzled as myself. Fred Stephenson was nothing but a boy—troublesome, no doubt, and often saucy, as boys will be—but a frank, gentlemanly young fellow that no man need have been ashamed to own as a relation. As Mr. Charteris spoke to him in the rough way related, he stood silent for a moment, and then said with a kind of nervous laugh: ‘There’s evidently no room for me here, so perhaps I should be wiser to go back.’ ‘No, no!’ I urged; ‘stay and shoot. Mr. Charteris only wants you to make up your mind.’ ‘If he’s got one!’ sneered his cousin. ‘Blowed if I haven’t got as big a one as you!’ exclaimed the lad; ‘and a better temper into the bargain. I’m sure I pity your people at home——’ But before he could finish his sentence Charteris had turned on him with a face pale with passion. ‘Are you going to hold your tongue or not?’ he said. ‘I see no reason why I should.’ ‘Then I shall have to make you.’ ‘You’d better try!’ Their conversation was so inevitably leading to a quarrel that I thought it time to interfere. I had no clue to the mystery that had raised Mr. Charteris’s temper, but I was sorry for Fred Stephenson, whom I could see was feeling all a boy’s disappointment at the prospect of having his holiday cut short. So I attempted the _rôle_ of peacemaker. ‘Mr. Charteris, pray don’t have any words with your cousin. You are frightening Ange and all of us. And, Fred, you shouldn’t speak in that way; you are spoiling your holiday, and making everybody uncomfortable. Mr. Charteris, won’t you take him to the forest?’ ‘If he wishes it I will. I have already said so.’ ‘I am sure he wishes it. He only came over for that purpose; didn’t you, Fred?’ ‘I shan’t care to go if Charteris speaks to me in that manner,’ grumbled the boy. ‘I shall not do it if you keep a civil tongue in your head. Will you come out shooting, then, or not?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Very well; I shall be ready in half a minute.’ Charteris turned on his heel as he spoke and left the room, but I detected an uncomfortable look of suspicion on his face as he did so. This unpleasant episode had made us all feel conscious, and not tended to increase the hilarity of my temperament. Fred stood thoughtfully at the window after his cousin had disappeared, and I drew near to speak a few words of comfort to him. ‘I am sorry this has happened, but it will all blow over in the forest. I suppose you will come back to dinner with him.’ ‘I don’t know. If I don’t get on his black books again, I may. What makes him so grumpy, Miss Marsh?’ ‘I have no idea! He seemed annoyed at your mentioning Parkhurst. Is that where his family live?’