“Dad is getting your habit, Roy. I’d like to know just how much he does think of that conversation you heard. Two-legged wolves! Well, the more we learn the less we know. Come in, my child, your bed-time approaches. Oh-h-h, snakes, but I’m sleepy!” Stretching high, he kicked open the door and entered the house. CHAPTER V HORTENSE RUNS WILD When the Manley boys came down to breakfast the next morning they found their mother waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. Her soft blue eyes, her blond hair, with never a streak of gray in it, her pretty, unlined face, would make one doubt that she could have two such large boys as Teddy and Roy for sons. “Good morning, night-hawks,” she gaily greeted and kissed them. “I suppose I’m not to know what kept you out until all hours? Last evening you said hello and good-night to me. No, never mind. We have corn bread and bacon for breakfast. Mrs. Moore made it especially for you. Did your father tell you where you were going to-day?” “You mean to the 8 X 8 with Belle?” Teddy asked. “That’s right. I hope Curly and Nell are there.” “Why? Have they gone back to the city?” Roy opened his eyes wide. “No, Roy, they haven’t,” Mrs. Manley laughed. “You rose to the bait splendidly, however. I’m sure you’ll see them.” “Don’t worry about that, Mom,” a girl’s voice called from the next room. “Think they’d visit the 8 X 8 without seeing Nell and Ethel?” “Come out here, Miss Manley, and say that,” Teddy laughed, blushing. “It’s a good thing a wall is between us.” “Oh, is it?” Belle Ada, her face wreathed in a grin, came to the door. “Mother, protect me! Now how about it, Mr. Smarty?” “Get to the left of her, Teddy,” Roy said in a loud whisper. “I’ll take the other side. Now!” “Let go my hair! Moth-er! They’re spoiling my--my coiffure!” “Your what?” Teddy demanded, halted in his tracks. “Say that again!” “Coiffure!” “Where’s that book?” Roy shouted, making a dive into the room Belle had just left. He reappeared in a moment, holding a volume in his hands. “Look at this, Teddy! ‘Lady Gwendemere’s Secret!’ Oh, boy! So that’s where you get your big words from, sister mine? Let’s see--” He opened the book. “There was a moment of silence as Lord Morleigh raised his glass. Then, in a voice fraught with passion, he cried: ‘To the fairest woman in the world! A jewel incomparable! May she--’” “Give me that book, Roy Manley!” Belle, her face aflame, snatched it from him. “Don’t you go snooping into my affairs! I guess I can read what books I want to.” “Within limits, my dear,” Mrs. Manley corrected, and smiled. “It wouldn’t do for you to feed on too much silly fiction, you know. Upstairs I have a volume containing essays by famous writers.” Mrs. Manley had been a school teacher before her marriage. “Suppose you get that and read it for a while?”