I had become quite a good traveller by this time, and had my system. That is to lie quite still, curled round, to let nobody or nothing disturb you, and not to be persuaded to look out of the basket for love or fish till the train rushes through the tunnels into King's Cross station. CHAPTER XII FROM TOP TO BOTTOM The moment we arrived at No. 100 Egerton Gardens Auntie May, finding out that her father had just gone round to his club, rushed upstairs to find her family, while I trotted at her heels, and screamed out before she had used her eyes almost: 'Oh, my darling dearest old Petronilla! They tell me that you have been pining for me.' Mother had her nose buried in a saucer of milk, and waited a moment before she looked up, then she let Auntie May take her in her arms and 'poor-poor' her, and she herself began to purr very prettily, but still there was a good deal of difference between the two greetings. It isn't that mother has no feelings, but that she is good at hiding them. As for Zobeide and Freddy, they were biting each other's heads off at the other end of the room, and took no notice. I didn't want to distract mother from being nice to Auntie May, so I went up to my brother and sister and spoke to them. But they had no time to listen to me, and their game looked so exciting that I was roped in before I knew where I was, and Fred rolled me over and punched me with his hind legs by mistake for Zobeide. So that was all the how-do-you-do that I got, after three months' separation. As for mother, when she was done with Auntie May, she just gave me a comprehensive lick that seemed to say everything. Home was delightful enough after that. And then mother's accident came. Mother is still very playful for her age, and people notice it. You can get her all lengths with a bit of string, and none of us can beat her in a helter-skelter race from the top of the house to the bottom. You hear her bumping on each story like an india-rubber ball. (We could never play this game except when Mr. Graham was out. The old make everything so stiff. Auntie May had no objection.) Sometimes when we felt very fresh we chased mother _upstairs_, which is much more tiring, and it was when we were doing this that the accident happened. Mother got a good start of us, and Fred was after her like a wild cat. He soon got close to her heels, and kept it up all the way to Auntie May's room at the very top of the house. The window of that room was open, but Freddy was too wild to see it. He simply chased mother across the room and out of the window, very nearly following her himself, but able to arrest his mad course on the sill just in time. I, too, managed to stop on the floor behind, and I said to my brother gravely: 'You've never gone and chased mother out of the window, Fred?' He said, 'I am sure I don't know. Where _has_ mother got to?' He seemed quite stunned.