"Will you please to remain, Master Lancaster? I wish to have some questions answered once we get into the house." That emphasised "Master" tickled him hugely; he gave Nell’s arm a surreptitious pinch as he responded courteously that he would be pleased to stay. "I’m sorry we kept you waiting, Aunt Kezia," began Nell again, valiantly. "Eileen, I do not wish to speak to any of you till we get inside the house!" Nell gave a little helpless gurgle, and tried to turn it into a cough. So they stood in dead silence and looked at each other. Nell felt that in another moment she would shriek aloud with mirth. Sheila Pat’s small shoulders shook every now and then, and Sheila Pat’s eyes studied Miss Kezia’s face with a most unholy glee in their wicked depths. Suddenly Molly, in a paroxysm of nervousness, burst out:— "Did you enjoy yourself, Aunt Kezia?" There was a little dreadful pause. Then—"I do not go to nurse my sick friends for _enjoyment_, Molly!" Nell clutched Ted’s arm despairingly, and then suddenly, glancing wildly about to keep her eyes from the comical little group, she caught sight of Denis’s wicked face peering at them from Herr Schmidt’s window. He met her eye, winked, and rolled away from the window in roars of laughter. She struggled—she pinched Ted’s arm cruelly—and she glared, fascinated, at that window. In a minute he reappeared, his eyes wet, studied them a moment, and rolled away again, roaring. His face was irresistible. She could see how he was roaring. She gave one last frantic pinch of Ted’s arm, and burst out into wild laughter—hopeless, unmistakable, helpless laughter. Ted looked at her, then at Miss Kezia’s crimson face, and leant helplessly against the front door. Poor Molly made the most awful sounds in her agitated efforts not to laugh, and Sheila Pat’s face grew momentarily more impish. Then the front door was opened with a suspicious suddenness, and Ted went headlong in—Denis dodged—he stumbled and staggered into the wall, where he recovered his equilibrium, and stood ruefully rubbing his head. "All right, old man, I’ll remember it!" he declared. Nell fled ignominiously, laughing and shaking, up the stairs and into the Stronghold, and banged the door. Down to the others there floated a long ripple of helpless laughter. They followed Miss Kezia into the morning room, and there she turned and faced them. Ted looked about him interestedly. He was distinctly amused; to be held up like this and lectured as if he were a naughty little boy was new to him, and he enjoyed it immensely. "One of you go up and fetch Eileen—no, not you, Denis! Or you, Master Lancaster! You go, Molly." Molly hesitated, in distress. She knew that, once alone with Nell, she would never be able to regain her seriousness. Ted took a step forward, "_Mayn’t_ I, please?" he asked meekly. "Did you not hear me, Molly?" "Y-yes, Aunt Kezia."