ut Harry dipped down and escaped. Quickly opening the door, he
ran, half in joke and half in earnest, at full speed up two pairs of
stairs, followed closely by Mrs. Crabtree, who was now in a terrible
rage, especially when she saw what a piece of fun Harry thought this
fatiguing race. A door happened to be standing wide open on the second
landing-place, which, having been observed by Harry, he darted in, and
slammed it in Mrs. Crabtree's face, locking and double-locking it, to
secure his own safety, after which he sat down in this empty apartment
to enjoy his victory in peace. When people once begin to grow
self-willed and rebellious, it is impossible to guess where it will all
end! Harry might have been easily led to do right at first, if any one
had reasoned with him and spoken kindly, but now he really was in a sort
of don't-care-a-button humour, and scarcely minded what he did next.

As long as Mrs. Crabtree continued to scold and rave behind the door,
Harry grew harder and harder; but at length the good old lady, Mrs.
Darwin herself, arrived up stairs, and represented how ungrateful he
was, not doing all in his power to please her, when she had taken so
much pains to make him happy. This brought the little rebel round in a
moment, as he became quite sensible of his own misconduct, and resolved
immediately to submit. Accordingly, Harry tried to open the door, but,
what is very easily done cannot sometimes be undone, which turned out
the case on this occasion, as, with all his exertions, the key would not
turn in the lock! Harry tried it first one way, then another. He twisted
with his whole strength, till his face became perfectly scarlet with the
effort, but in vain! At last he put the poker through the handle of the
key, thinking this a very clever plan, and quite sure to succeed, but
after a desperate struggle, the unfortunate key broke in two, so then
nobody could possibly open the door!

After this provoking accident happened, Harry felt what a very bad boy
he had been, so he burst into tears, and called through the key-hole to
beg Mrs. Darwin's pardon, while Mrs. Crabtree scolded him through the
key-hole in return, till Harry shrunk away as if a cannonading had begun
at his ear.

Meantime, Mrs. Darwin hurried off, racking her brains to think what had
best be done to deliver the prisoner, since no time could be lost, or
she might perhaps not get to town at all that night, and the car was
expected every minute