"Can I do anything for you? They say I patronise you, but that is not true. I don't exactly know what they mean by patronise, but I will do all I can to help you, for you are quite the nicest little girl I have met since I came to England." Agnes and Rita seemed neither of them to thoroughly appreciate these remarks of Von Marlo's, for he was really the biggest and most imposing-looking of the four boys. Even Alex, who was a handsome fellow, looked very young beside him. As to me, I felt soothed. Of course, you must understand that if you have been called Dumps all your life, and told to your face that you haven't one vestige of good looks, it must be a sort of pleasure to have a person suddenly inform you that you are--oh! better than good-looking--the very prettiest girl he has seen in the whole of the country. I felt, therefore, a flush of triumph stealing to my cheeks, and then I said, "Please keep things as quiet as you can. I must go to the kitchen to get some tea for father. Please don't let them be noisy." "I'll sit on them if they are," said Von Marlo. But Alex called out, "Go along, Von, and help her; that'll be the best way. Good gracious! she's in such a state of mind, because you are noticing her and bolstering her up, that she will fall, as likely as not, going down those slippery backstairs. Go along with her, old chap, and help her." "Yes, come," I said, for I could not resist it. So Von Marlo and I found ourselves in the big hall; then he took my hand and we went along the passage, and then down another passage, and then we opened a door and I called to Hannah. "Hannah, are you downstairs?" We were looking into pitch-black darkness, but we heard a muffled voice say, "Yes, Miss Rachel? Sakes alive! What's wanted now?" Then Hannah appeared at the foot of the stairs, holding a lighted candle. "I'm coming down," I said, "and I'm bringing a gentleman with me." Hannah very nearly fell in her amazement, but I went steadily down, Von Marlo following me. "It is a very old house," I whispered, "and some people say it is haunted. But you are not afraid of ghosts, are you?" "I think they are the jolliest things in the world!" was his reply. He said the word jolly in a very funny way, as though he was not accustomed to the word, and it sounded quite sweet. At last we got to the lower regions, and then, guided by Hannah's candle--which was really only like a very little spark of light--we found our way into the kitchen. "Once this was a grand house and grand people lived here," I said. "Father lives here now because it belongs to the college. The house is a great deal too big for us, but it is a glorious place for hide-and-seek. This is the kitchen--monstrous dinners used to be cooked here." "Now then, Miss Rachel, what do you want?" said Hannah. "And I think young gents as ought to be at school ought to keep out of the Professor's kitchen. That's what I think."