"There it is again!" Miss Kezia was wrathful, but there was also an anxious glint in her eye. "What is the matter with the dog? Is it ill?" Nell, fascinatedly watching the putting forth of a stealthy brown arm from beneath the sofa, in the direction of Sheila Pat’s shoe buttons, responded with an irrepressible little laugh. "I don’t see anything to laugh at, Eileen! I am afraid you are very foolish and frivolous for your age." "Ow—yow—yow—yo—o—o—oo—_ow_!" The final "ow" was a veritable triumph of hideous nerve shattering. Miss Kezia’s voice rose angrily: "I believe it is going mad! Or has distemper! I was foolish ever to allow it in my house! I hate dogs! It will have to be sent away if it’s ill!" The brown paw had reached and seized a shoe button. Sheila Pat was kicking frantically. The paw darted back. "Oh, no—he—she isn’t ill, Aunt Kezia—she’s quite well—she’s been mad—I mean, had distemper, already—oh, I—I think I’m rather m-muddley this morning—" "I hope you’re not hysterical, Eileen! You are really astonishingly foolish! As for the dog—" K.K. had turned; her head was now facing Miss Kezia. Nell recognised the fact that the next howl could not, even by Miss Kezia, be put down to her. For a moment she thought of hustling her aunt from the room; but the detection of the puppy merely meant anger, punishment, a letter to Australia. They could face that, and Jim’s arm had disappeared. They could not put up with his banishment. There was a sudden and portentous silence in the cupboard. Miss Kezia had a few more remarks to make. She made them. Once she deviated from the main theme of noise and general untidiness, lured by a rustle in the cupboard, on to mice. She declared that the kitchen was overrun by mice, and all because they had wantonly bought and let loose three in her house. She was going to buy new traps, as something had evidently gone wrong with the springs of hers. Twice she had found the cheese gone and the mouse, too!