"Miss Fortescue." "Yes, I doubt if I can make that bit seem quite so natural. Still, I'll try." "Hooray. How splendid!" "A rat-catcher," I murmured to myself. "Where is the rat? The rat is on the mat. The cat is on the rat. The bat is on the cat. The----" "Mr Derry will go through your part with you to-morrow. Some of it is funnier than that." "The electrical engineer? What do they know about rat-catching?" "Nothing, only----" "Aha! Now I see who your mysterious Mr Derry is. He is going to coach us." "He is. You've found it out at last. How bright green sweets make you." "They have to be really bright green sweets. Poor man! What a job he'll have with us all." "Yes," said Myra, as she prepared to leave me. "Now you know why he doesn't get up till ten." "In the rat-catching business," I said thoughtfully, as I opened the door, "the real rush comes in the afternoon. Rat-catchers in consequence never get up till ten-thirty. Do you know," I decided, "I am quite beginning to like my little part." CHAPTER II ALARMS AND EXCURSIONS I was, I confess, very late the next morning, even for a rat-catcher. Mr Derry was in the middle of his breakfast; all the others had finished. We saluted, and I settled down to work. "There is going to be a rehearsal at eleven o'clock, I believe," said Derry. "It must be nearly that now." "I shall be there," I said, "if I have to bring the marmalade with me. You're going to coach us?" "Well, I believe I said I would." "Though I have never assumed the buskin myself," I went on, "I have, of course, heard of you as an amateur actor." (_Liar_.) "And if you could tell me how to act, while I am finishing my bacon, I should be most awfully obliged." "Haven't you really done any?" "Only once, when I was very small. I was the heroine. I had an offer, but I had to refuse it, I said, 'Alath, dear heart, I may not, I am married already.'" "Very right and proper," murmured Derry. "Well, as it turned out, I had made a mistake. It was my first who had been married already. The little play was full of surprises like." Derry coughed, and took out his pipe. "Let me see," he began, "what's your part?" "I am--er--a rodent-collector." "Oh yes--the Emperor's rat-catcher." "Grand hereditary," I said stiffly. "It had been in the family for years." "Quite so." I was about to enlarge upon the advantages of the hereditary principle when the door opened suddenly to admit Myra and Archie. "You don't say you're down at last!" said Myra, in surprise. "I hardly say anything at breakfast, as a rule," I pointed out. "What an enormous one you're having. And only last night----" "On the contrary, I'm eating practically nothing--a nut and one piece of parsley off the butter. The fact is, I glanced at my part before I went to bed, and there seemed such a lot of it I hardly slept at all."