The twins had no reverence for anything or anybody. One day they were in Evadne's little sitting room which overlooked the courtyard. It was an antechamber to her bedroom, and peculiarly her own by right of primogeniture. Nobody ever thought of going there without her special permission--except, of course, the twins; but even they assumed hypocritical airs of innocent apology for accidental intrusion when they wanted to make things pleasant for themselves. On this particular occasion Evadne was sitting beside her little work-table busy with her needle, and the twins were standing together looking out of the window. "There's papa," said Diavolo. "He's going for a ride," said Angelica. "Doesn't he mount queerly?" Diavolo observed. "He'd be safer in a bath chair." "Not if we were wheeling him," Angelica suggested, with a chuckle. "What shall we do?" yawned Diavolo. "Shall we fight?" "Yes; let's," said Angelica. "You must do no such thing," Evadne interfered. "Not fight! Why?" Angelica demanded. "We _must_ fight, you know," Diavolo asserted. "I don't see that," said Evadne. "Why should you fight?" "It's good for the circulation of the blood," said Angelica. "Warms a body, you know." "And there's the property, too!" said Diavolo. "We've got to fight for that." Evadne did not understand, so Angelica kindly explained: "You see, I'm the eldest, but Diavolo's a boy, so he gets the property because of the entail, and we neither of us think it fair; so we fight for it, and whichever wins is to have it. I won the last battle, so it's mine just now; but Diavolo may win it back if we fight again before papa dies. That's why he wants to fight now, I expect." "Yes," Diavolo candidly confessed. "But we generally fight when we see papa go out for a ride." "Because you are afraid he will catch you and punish you as you deserve, if he's at home, I suppose, you bad children." "Not at all," said Angelica. "It's because he looks so unsafe on a horse; you never know what'll happen." "It's a kind of a last chance," said Diavolo, "and that makes it exciting." "But wouldn't you be very sorry if your father died?" Evadne asked. The twins looked at each other doubtfully. "Should we?" Diavolo said to Angelica. "I wonder?" said Angelica.