"Come, my boy, none of this nonsense," he said, signing to Miss Gregson to put him down. "A man never kicks a lady? You want to be a man don't you?" Peter's voice was stern, and the child somewhat awed left off screaming, and stood with his fingers in his mouth surveying him. Mr. Fortescue returned the look gravely and silently. There is nothing much more powerful than the human eye to quell rebellion in the young. The child suddenly hid his face in Miss Gregson's skirts. "Now," said Peter quietly, "you will go to bed at once like a good boy. Good-night." Jemmy followed Miss Gregson closely, tripping up in her dress. The quiet voice and grave eyes had done their work, and Miss Gregson and the housemaid between them undressed and bathed the child without any more trouble, and Jemmy for the first time in his life lying between lovely white sheets, soon fell asleep. CHAPTER VI FAILURE MISS GREGSON never forgot the week that followed, neither indeed did a single member of the household. Jane the housemaid gave warning. It was too much for her nerves, she declared. Finding that they were not the docile little children that she had expected, Sheila soon gave up the idea of bathing them and putting them to bed herself, and had relinquished that duty to Jane; and the housemaid could scarcely stand the pinches and kicks that the children gave her, or the water they threw at her as she bathed them. They were utterly uncontrollable. As for the pretty paper in the West bedroom, the children had not been there two days before Jane discovered pencil marks on the wall by the window, and the names of the little visitors scratched on the white paint of the shutters. James, the gardener, lost all patience with the boys; not only were the heads of his dahlias violently knocked off, but the green house was invaded by the rebels, and in trying to reach the grapes a window was broken and branches torn down. He confided to Jane that, if Miss Dennison was going to fill her house with such little vagabonds, he would follow her example and leave. As for the cook! She "felt fit to cry to see the waste," she informed her fellow servants. The children wouldn't eat the nice hot broth she made for them, or the rice puddings which were good and wholesome, and the plates came down again and again only just touched. If there was jam or pastry they ate it fast enough. She called it "right wicked" to indulge them like this. They'd go home worse than they came; "but there now," she added, "Miss Dennison don't understand children and she means well by them." Miss Gregson was still more unhappy at the failure of the girl's plan; for she knew it would not be long before she would lose patience and interest in the work, and of what would happen then, her chaperon had no conception.