"Excuse me, miss, but that's exactly what I don't intend to do--not till I know how I stand." "How you stand?" "I'll soon tell you how you stand," declared Dick. "You'll be paid a month's wages and you'll take yourself off." "Oh, shall I, sir? That's just the sort of thing I thought you would say after the way you've been trying to behave to Mr Miller. And in any case I shouldn't think of stopping in the house with a pack of rude, ungrateful children. But I should like more than one month's wages, if it's the same to you. There's three months nearly due. I've not had one penny since I've been inside this house." "Not since you've been inside this house?" "Not one penny; and it's getting on for three months now." "But I thought mother always paid you every month regularly." "Did she, miss? Then perhaps you'll prove it. She never paid me; nor more she didn't Betsy. There's three months owing to you, isn't there, Betsy?" "That there is." "And so there is to you, isn't there, Harris?" "Well--I don't know that it's quite three months." "Why, you told me yourself as how it was." Harris tilted his hat on one side and scratched his head as if to jog his memory. "Well--it might be." At this Dick fired up. "It's all a pack of lies! I'm sure that my mother paid you your wages as they fell due, and that you're trying to cheat us." Then it was cook's turn. "Don't you talk to me like that, not if you do call yourself a young gentleman. And I'll learn you to know that a woman of my age is not going to be called a cheat by a young lad like you. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, that's what you ought to be, standing there disgracing of yourself." The Ogre held up his hand, as if to play the part of peacemaker. "Gently, cook, gently. You leave it to me and I will see that you have what is due to you. We must remember how ignorant these young people are of their position, and try to make allowances. Though I grant that under the circumstances it's a little difficult." He put his hands into his trouser pockets, tilted back the chair on which he was seated, and considered the ceiling. "What I intend to do is this. At Miss Molly's request I have, reluctantly, incurred certain liabilities and assumed certain responsibilities. To know exactly what those responsibilities are it is necessary that I should examine thoroughly the condition of affairs. When I have done so--it cannot, I am sorry to say, be done in a moment--I will lay the results before the more responsible members of the family--if there are any such--and without waiting for the thanks which I possibly shall not receive I will at once withdraw."