"Oh, my dear, the wildest fancies! He didn't like Hope practising the children's songs this morning, and was blightingly superior about her taste; but the worst grievance is that there is a tapping at his study window which gets on his nerves, and that something wakes him up every morning before it is light. It sounds too ridiculous to be true, but he actually supposed that we were responsible." "What utter folly!" began Stephen angrily; but the next moment he stopped short, and with one accord four pairs of eyes followed his towards the corner of the room where Barney sat--shaking, red-faced, apoplectic. "_Barney_!" cried the head of the house in a terrible voice. "What is the meaning of this? Do you mean to say that this is _your_ doing? Have you had any hand in this business? Speak up this moment." "I should think I had!" cried Barney. "Both hands in it! Didn't I vow when Hope went away that I would find some plan of keeping the old fellow occupied? I flatter myself that I hit on something original this time, and secured a fine effect with next to no trouble. The tapping was made by a little lead weight hung on the end of a string fastened outside the girls' window. It swung about in the air, just at the top of his panes, and when there was a breeze, tapped away like a machine. I fastened it up one day, and left it to do its work. It's there still, if you choose to look. The waking-up business was more difficult. I found out, by watching the lights at night, that he slept beneath my room, and I borrowed an alarum from a fellow in the office. I told him why I wanted it, and he nearly died with laughing. I set it for different hours, and lowered it down by a cord so that it lay against the pane. I left my window open, and when it went off it woke me too, and I hopped out of bed and pulled it up before he opened his window. It was too dark for him to see anything, but I could hear him muttering to himself in a tearing rage. It came off splendidly, but I'm not sorry to give up that part of the business, for it was jolly cold getting out of bed and standing by that open window. It isn't good enough in this weather;" and Barney doubled himself up in another burst of laughter at the success of his plot. For once nobody joined in the chorus; the girls were dumb and horrified, while Stephen was filled with righteous indignation. "Stop laughing this moment, sir," he cried sternly. "You have done mischief enough; don't make it worse by triumphing over it. If you have not enough consideration for your sisters to teach you how to behave, I must find some other way of keeping you in order. I won't have the peace of the house ruined and Philippa worried to death."