“I’m going to fold them if you give me time.” “I think it’s just as well we stopped when we did,” Edward remarked. “Your language, Reginald, was beginning to get fairly sultry.” “It was only dramatic――to express suffering.” “It did that all right:――sounded as if you’d just taken a full-pitcher on the knee.” “I noticed old Drumsticks looking a bit fidgety,” cried Jim, fluttering about in his shirt, pursued by Pouncer, who was bent on licking his bare legs. “Lend me that dressing-gown, Palmer. It’s not worth while putting on proper clothes just to have to take them off again in about ten minutes. Ouu!” he squealed. “Go away, Pouncer, you old rascal. Grif, call him away. He’s frightfully tickly!” “Miss Johnson didn’t like it,” said Grif. “Perhaps we should have done something else.” He appeared to be the only one, however, who felt pangs of uneasiness, and indeed, with the exceptions of Palmer and Edward, all had acted their parts in perfect good faith, and without the least desire to travesty Miss Johnson’s work. “I wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t kicked up such a row this morning,” Palmer defended himself, “and everybody knows it was only a joke.” “Oh, she’ll get over it,” said Edward, more callously. “Serves her jolly well right too!” “I think it was rather rotten,” said Grif, “though of course we didn’t intend it to be. I never thought she’d mind, till I saw she did. I’m going to tell her I’m sorry.” “Well, run away and tell her now,” cried Edward, angrily. “Nobody will stop you. _You_ didn’t do much anyway, except tear Aunt Caroline’s skirt.” CHAPTER IX POUNCER ‘Wherefore hast thou left me now?’ ――_Shelley._ The circus was but a sorry affair――a poor travelling show, with a few lean horses, a troup of performing dogs, a sick monkey in a cage, and several dubious specimens of humanity decked out in tinsel and colour,――yet the news that after all they were not to go to see it was received in a dead silence of disappointment. Later on, in the shrubbery, it was discussed freely enough, Jim inveighing noisily against the evil of not fulfilling promises that had been definitely made. He preached open defiance and gained nothing thereby save a gloomy threat from Edward that if he didn’t shut up his head would be smacked. Grif alone accepted the new decree with equanimity.