of doing--we two slipped round to the back of the house,
and speedily put several solid acres between us and civilisation, for
fear of being ordered in to tea in the drawing-room. By the time we
returned, our new importation had gone up to dress for dinner, so till
the morrow at least we were free of him.

Meanwhile the March wind, after dropping a while at sundown, had been
steadily increasing in volume; and although I fell asleep at my usual
hour, about midnight I was wakened by the stress and cry of it. In the
bright moonlight, wind-swung branches tossed and swayed eerily across
the blinds; there was rumbling in chimneys, whistling in keyholes, and
everywhere a clamour and a call. Sleep was out of the question, and,
sitting up in bed, I looked round. Edward sat up too. "I was wondering
when you were going to wake," he said. "It's no good trying to sleep
through this. I vote we get up and do something."

"I'm game," I replied. "Let's play at being in a ship at sea" (the
plaint of the old house under the buffeting wind suggested this,
naturally); "and we can be wrecked on an island, or left on a raft,
whichever you choose; but I like an island best myself, because there's
more things on it."

Edward on reflection negatived the idea. "It would make too much noise,"
he pointed out. "There's no fun playing at ships, unless you can make a
jolly good row."

The door creaked, and a small figure in white slipped cautiously in.
"Thought I heard you talking," said Charlotte. "We don't like it; we're
afraid--Selina too. She'll be here in a minute. She's putting on her new
dressing-gown she's so proud of."

His arms round his knees, Edward cogitated deeply until Selina appeared,
barefooted, and looking slim and tall in the new dressing-gown. Then,
"Look here," he exclaimed; "now we're all together, I vote we go and
explore!"

"You're always wanting to explore," I said. "What on earth is there to
explore for in this house?"

"Biscuits!" said the inspired Edward.

"Hooray! Come on!" chimed in Harold, sitting up suddenly. He had been
awake all the time, but had been shamming asleep, lest he should be
fagged to do anything.

It was indeed a fact, as Edward had remembered, that our thoughtless
elders occasionally left the biscuits out, a prize for the night-walking
adventurer with nerves of steel.

Edward tumbled out of bed, and pulled a baggy old pair of knickerbockers
over his bare shanks. Then he girt himself with a be