"Ah! I've been waiting for that quotation," cried Sophie, sharp as a needle. "Olive, he made use of it about twenty times last night--went all round the room planting it everywhere. I heard it myself at least ten times, and knowing Eusty as we do, it's safe to put the total figure at twenty. And now he's transplanted it here. I knew he would. Dragged it in by the head and shoulders, too--literally." "Twenty times! Say a hundred while you're about it." "It was twenty at least. Why, Margaret heard him three times, and scowled at him for a profane person." "Who hadn't got any `birthright' to sell," cut in Eustace. "But you should have heard that child. She got in among a knot of those doleful chaps, all neck and spectacles, regular gargoyles, you know, and played the very mischief. You know that lank chap, Berriman, who brought out those asinine articles on celibacy. Well, she soon worked round to that topic, and made of it a peg whereon to hang such a jobation, that they stared at her in horrified amaze, and scattered as if a shell had dropped in among them. You see, she spoke feelingly. That sort of doctrine tends to spoil trade." "Pooh! None of your gargoyles for me," laughed Sophie. "No. Nothing less than a gay Hussar will suit her," rejoined Eustace. "There are two in the regiment that'll be just the thing--both much of a muchness. I'm going to bring them over next time I get leave, and then, O Sophonisba, my child, you can smile on the survivor." "No," retorted the girl mischievously. "I don't like soldiers-- cavalrymen least of all. Civilians are much nicer. Look at Roland, for instance. He doesn't tire one with a lot of third-hand chaff." "Oh, come! I say, Olive, do you allow that?" cried the irrepressible subaltern. "In view of the approximate passing of the Deceased Wife's Sister's Bill, I call upon you to quell such sentiments, and to repudiate their enunciator--trix, rather." The ice at Spelder Fields was in fine order. It was a large, flooded meadow on one of the Cranston farms, and although the Squire could have kept it closed to the public, that course would have roused such an amount of ill-feeling as to render the experiment not worth while, for it had been used from time immemorial. It was the rule, however, that anything tending to spoil the ice should be rigorously excluded, and elides were strictly taboo, while any approach to yahooism was promptly nipped in the bud. As the townspeople could not turn out till evening, during the daytime the privileged few had things all their own way.