"Engaged, Mrs. Carmyle? Not me! Not that I might n’t have bin, mark you, if I had n’t been born careful. Be born careful, and you need n’t be born lucky. The Proverbs of Perce--Number one!" he added, in a humorous aside. "Well, to resume. Luckily I had the old push-bike with me, and I managed to find my way down here in a matter of an hour and a half or so. And then what happens? Just as I am doing a final spin up your kerridge-drive, your ladyship--_bing! bang!_ and I get bowled over in the dark by a charging rhinoceros!" Mr. Welwyn concluded this dramatic narrative with a few appropriate gestures, and paused to note its effect upon his auditors. "That was Maximilian, I fancy," explained Dicky cheerfully. "The little fellow must have got loose. Did you notice which way he was going?" "I did," replied Percy with feeling. "He was going the opposite way to me." "In that case," replied Dicky reflectively, "he must be halfway back to mother by this time. Well, perhaps it is just as well. Did you happen to observe whether he had the rain-gauge with him?" "All I remarked," replied Mr. Welwyn bitterly, "was about half a mudguard. But that," he continued, with a winning smile to the ladies, "is neither here nor there, is it? Seeing as you are safe, Tilly, old girl, I think I may now resign the post of chaperon into her ladyship’s hands. And perhaps," he added with a graceful bow, "I may be permitted to remark that in my humble opinion a more capable pair of hands could not be found for the job." Lady Adela had suffered severely that day, and her spirit for the time being was almost broken. She merely smiled weakly. Mr. Welwyn, now at the very top of his form, struck an attitude. "My trusty iron steed," he declaimed, "waits without the battlements--all but a few spokes, that is, accounted for by the aforesaid rhinoceros--and I must hence, to ketch the seven-fifteen back to Londinium." "Does that mean he is going?" murmured Lady Adela to her daughter, with a flutter of hope upon her drawn features. Sylvia was nodding reassuringly, when the tactless Dicky broke in:-- "Percy, old son, you really must stay for dinner, if not for the night." "We can’t send you away empty in weather like this, Mr. Welwyn," added Mr. Mainwaring hospitably. "My dear--" He turned to his wife, but the words froze upon his lips, for Lady Adela presented an appearance that can only be described as terrible. But the impervious Percy noticed nothing.