The ice being thus easily broken, Ida found herself received into the bosom of the family, and at once established as a favourite with all. There were two boys in Eton jackets, answering to the names of Reginald and Horatio, but oftener to the friendly abbreviations Reg and Horry. Both had chubby faces, liberally freckled, warts on their hands, and rumpled hair; and it was not easy for a new comer to distinguish Horatio from Reginald, or Reginald from Horatio. There was a girl of fourteen with flowing hair, who looked very tall because her petticoats were very short, and who always required some one to hug and hang upon. If she found herself deprived of human support she lolled against a wall. This young person at once pounced upon Ida, as a being sent into the world to sustain her. 'Do you think you shall like me?' she asked, when they had all swarmed up to the long corridor, out of which numerous bedrooms opened. 'I like you already,' answered Ida. 'Do thoo like pigs?' asked a smaller girl, round and rosy, in a holland pinafore, putting the question as if it were relevant to her sister's inquiry. 'I don't quite know,' said Ida doubtfully. ''Cos there are nine black oneths, tho pwutty. Will thoo come and thee them?' Ida said she would think about it: and then she received various pressing invitations to go and see lop-eared rabbits, guinea-pigs, a tame water-rat in the rushes of the duck-pond, a collection of eggs in the schoolroom, and the new lawn-tennis ground which father had made in the paddock. 'Now all you small children run away!' cried Bessie, loftily. 'Ida and I are going to dress for dinner.' The crowd dispersed reluctantly, with low mutterings about rabbits, pigs, and water-rats, like the murmurs of a stage mob; and then Bessie led her friend into a large sunny room fronting westward, a room with three windows, cushioned window-seats, two pretty white-curtained beds, and a good deal of old-fashioned and heterogeneous furniture, half English, half Indian. 'You said you wouldn't mind sleeping in my room,' said Bessie, as she showed her friend an exclusive dressing-table, daintily draperied, and enlivened with blue satin bows, for the refreshment of the visitor's eye. While the girls were contemplating this work of art the door was suddenly opened and Blanche's head was thrust in. 'I did the dressing-table, Miss Palliser, every bit, on purpose for you.' And the door then slammed to, and Bessie rushed across the room and drew the bolt. 'We shall have them all one after another,' she said. 'Don't shut them out on my account.' 'Oh, but I must. You would have no peace. I can see they are going to be appallingly fond of you.' 'Let them like me as much as they can. Do you know, Bessie, this is my first glimpse into the inside of a home!' 'Oh, Ida, dear, but your father,' remonstrated Bessie.