Selwyn's hesitating hand sought his moustache; he lifted his eyes--the steady gray eyes, slightly bloodshot--to his sister's distressed face. "I never dreamed--" she began--"the child has never spoken of--of her from that time to this! I never dreamed she could remember--" "I don't understand what you are talking about, mother," said Drina; but her pretty mother caught her by the shoulders, striving to speak lightly; "Where in the world is Bridget, child? Where is Katie? And what is all this I hear from Dawson? It can't be possible that you have been fox-hunting all over the house again! Your nurses know perfectly well that you are not to hunt anywhere except in your own nursery." "I know it," said Drina, "but Kit-Ki got out and ran downstairs. We had to follow her, you know, until she went to earth." Selwyn quietly bent over toward Billy: "'Ware wire, my friend," he said under his breath; "_you'd_ better cut upstairs and unlock that schoolroom." And while Mrs. Gerard turned her attention to the cluster of clamouring younger children, the boy vanished only to reappear a moment later, retreating before the vengeful exclamations of the lately imprisoned nurses who pursued him, caps and aprons flying, bewailing aloud their ignominious incarceration. "Billy!" exclaimed his mother, "_did_ you do that? Bridget, Master William is to take supper by himself in the schoolroom--and _no_ marmalade!--No, Billy, not one drop!" "We all saw him lock the door," said Drina honestly. "And you let him? Oh, Drina!--And Ellen! Katie! No marmalade for Miss Drina--none for any of the children. Josie, mother feels dreadfully because you all have been so naughty. Winthrop!--your finger! Instantly! Clemence, baby, where on earth did you acquire all that grime on your face and fists?" And to her brother: "Such a household, Phil! Everybody incompetent--including me; everything topsy-turvy; and all five dogs perfectly possessed to lie on that pink rug in the music room.--_Have_ they been there to-day, Drina?--while you were practising?" "Yes, and there are some new spots, mother. I'm _very_ sorry." "Take the children away!" said Mrs. Gerard. But she bent over, kissing each culprit as the file passed out, convoyed by the amply revenged nurses. "No marmalade, remember; and mother has a great mind _not_ to come up at bedtime and lean over you. Mother has no desire to lean over her babies to-night." To "lean over" the children was always expected of this mother; the direst punishment on the rather brief list was to omit this intimate evening ceremony. "M-mother," stammered the Master of Fox Hounds, "you _will_ lean over us, won't you?" "Mother hasn't decided--" "Oh, muvver!" wailed Josie; and a howl of grief and dismay rose from Winthrop, modified to a gurgle by the forbidden finger. "You _will_, won't you?" begged Drina. "We've been pretty bad, but not bad enough for that!"