The phrase had occurred several times in the earlier part of the minister’s sermon before Edmund fell asleep, and commended itself to his youthful imagination as being singularly forceful and expressive. Miss Esperance sighed. She really felt incapable of further wrestling with Edmund just then, and looked appealingly at Mr. Wycherly. But he dropped his eyes and refused to meet her gaze. "He," Edmund suddenly resumed, pointing with his spoon at Mr. Wycherly, "never goes there. _He_"—with even more emphasis and the greatest deliberation—"is a—very—wise—man." Here the naughty boy wagged his curly head and spoke with such barefaced and perfect mimicry of his aunt, that again catching Mr. Wycherly’s eye, she burst into laughter, in which that gentleman was thankful to join her. "More puddin’, please!" Edmund exclaimed, seizing the propitious moment to hand up his plate. That afternoon neither of the little boys accompanied Miss Esperance to church. *CHAPTER XI* *LOAVES AND FISHES* I am no quaker at my food. I confess I am not indifferent to the kinds of it.—CHARLES LAMB. On the following Sabbath day Edmund was a-missing directly it was time to get ready for church. He was to be found neither in house nor garden, and Miss Esperance came to the sorrowful conclusion that the Bethune temperament had again asserted itself, and that Edmund had, of deliberate purpose, effaced himself so that he should not be made to go to church. She was not on this occasion in the least perturbed by the fact that the small boy was lost. She had no fears as to his safety, but she was most grievously upset by this deliberate flying in the face of authority, and set off for church, looking very grave and almost stern, with only Montagu in attendance. Mr. Wycherly had shut himself in his room during the hunt for Edmund. He had a nervous dread of scenes of any kind, and when either of the little boys was punished he suffered horribly. He fully recognised the necessity for occasional correction, especially in the case of a small boy so chock-full of original sin as Edmund. But none the less did he undergo much mental anguish on the occasions when such punishment took place. He could not altogether approve of certain of the methods of Miss Esperance, although he reverenced her far too much to indulge in any conscious criticism. Remote had always been marked out from other houses by the immense tranquillity of its chief inmates, to whom fret and fuss were unknown. People were never scolded at Remote, unless by Elsa, when she was quite sure Miss Esperance was out of hearing. When Montagu and Edmund were naughty they were punished by Miss Esperance, who always, and manifestly, suffered much more than the delinquents.