Nicky--or Veronica Elizabeth Vereker--was in many respects the most remarkable of the Rectory children. She was thirteen years old, was the only dark-haired member of the family, and (as she was fond of explaining) was possessed of a devil. This remarkable attribute was sometimes adduced as a distinction and sometimes as an excuse,--the former when impressionable and nervous children came to tea, the latter when all other palliatives of crime had failed. Certainly she could lay claim to the brooding spirit, the entire absence of fear, the unlimited low cunning, and the love of sin for its own sake which go to make the master-criminal. At present she was enjoying herself in characteristic fashion. Her brother Stephen--known as "Stiffy"--Nicky's senior by one year, a transparently honest but somewhat limited youth, had for the greater part of the game been applying a slow-moving intellect to the acquisition of one complete Family. Higher he did not look. Nicky's habit was to allow Stiffy, with infinite labour, to collect the majority of the members of a Family in which she herself was interested, and then, at the eleventh hour, to swoop down and strip her unconscious collaborator of his hardly-earned collection. Stiffy, sighing patiently, had just surrendered Mr, Mrs, and Miss Block (Hairdressers and Dealers in Toilet Requisites) to the depredatory hands of Nicky, and was debating in his mind whether he should endeavour when his next chance came to complete the genealogical tree of Mr Soot the Sweep or corner the clan of Bung the Brewer. Possessing two Bungs to one Soot, he decided on the latter alternative. Presently he was asked by his elder sister, Cilly (Monica Cecilia), for a card which he did not possess, and this gave him the desired opening. "I say, Nicky," he began deferentially, "have you got Master Bung?" Nicky surveyed her hand for a moment, and then raised a pair of liquid-blue eyes and smiled seraphically. "No, Stiffy, dear," she replied; "but I'll have Mr Bung and Mrs Bung." Stiffy, resigned as ever, handed over the cards. Suddenly Sebastian Aloysius Vereker, the eldest son of the family (usually addressed as "Ally"), put down his cards and remarked, slowly and without heat-- "Cheating again! My word, Nicky, you are the absolute _edge_!" "_Who_ is cheating?" inquired Veronica in a shocked voice. "You. Either you _must_ have Master Bung, or else you are asking for Stiffy's cards without having any Bungs at all; because I've got Miss myself." He laid the corybantic young lady in question upon the table to substantiate his statement. Nicky remained entirely unruffled. "Oh--_Bung_!" she exclaimed. "Sorry! I thought you said 'Bun,' Stiffy. You should spit out your G's a bit more, my lad. _Bung-gah_--like that! I really must speak to dad about your articulation." In polite card-playing circles a lady's word is usually accepted as sufficient; but the ordinary courtesies of everyday life do not prevail in a family of six.