"Rotten stink here. Furniture polish, or something." "Yes--filthy reek!" agreed Stiffy. "It's turpentine," cried Cilly, crinkling her nose. "It's Elliman," said Tony. "It's _you_, Nicky!" said everybody at once. Daphne, who was drawing on her gloves, peeled them off again with some deliberation, and took her youngest sister by the shoulders. "Nicky," she inquired, "how much Elliman did you use?" That infant martyr, wincing ostentatiously, delicately protruded a foot, and exhibited a long black leg heavily swathed from knee to instep under her stocking with a bandage of colossal dimensions. "Not more than I could help, Daph," she said. "I found one or two other bruises on my--all over me, in fact: so I--I just put a little Elliman on each. I didn't want to be a trouble to any one, so----" "Run upstairs, Stiffy," Daphne interpolated swiftly, "and see how much Elliman is left in the bottle." By this time Cilly had thrown open the front door and staircase windows, and the remainder of the Vereker family were fanning themselves with their Sunday hats and ostentatiously fighting for breath--an exercise in which they persevered until Stiffy reappeared carrying an empty bottle. "Two bobs' worth!" shouted Ally. "And I meant it to last for months! Nicky, you little _sweep_!" Daphne glanced at the hall clock. "Fourteen minutes!" she calculated frantically. "Yes, it can just be done. Nicky, my cherub, you shall come to church this morning if I have to _scrape_ you. Go on, you others! I'll follow myself as quickly as I can." The last sentence was delivered far up the staircase, which Miss Vereker was ascending with flying feet, a tearful and unwilling appendage trailing behind her. Next moment the bathroom door banged, and the departing worshippers heard both taps turned on. * * * * * At two minutes past eleven precisely Daphne and Nicky, the former cool, collected, and as prettily dressed as any woman in the congregation, the latter scarlet as if from recent parboiling, walked demurely down the aisle just as the choir entered the chancel, lustily bellowing a hymn which drew attention to the advantages accruing in the next world to that Servant of the Lord who should be found Waiting in his Office, in a Posture not specified--Tony used often to wonder what would happen if the Day of Judgment should fall upon a Bank holiday or Saturday afternoon--and joined the rest of the family in the Rectory pew. * * * * *