d.

'Oh, Panther, I didn't mean to hurt, really,' cried Cyril, clattering
the poker back into the fender.

'It's--all--right,' said Anthea breathlessly, clasping the hurt hand
with the one that wasn't hurt; 'it's--getting--red.'

It was--a round red and blue bump was rising on the back of it. 'Now,
Robert,' she said, trying to breathe more evenly, 'you go out--oh, I
don't know where--on to the dustbin--anywhere--and I shall tell mother
you and the Lamb are out.'

Anthea was now ready to deceive her mother for as long as ever she
could. Deceit is very wrong, we know, but it seemed to Anthea that it
was her plain duty to keep her mother from being frightened about the
Lamb as long as possible. And the Phoenix might help.

'It always has helped,' Robert said; 'it got us out of the tower, and
even when it made the fire in the theatre it got us out all right. I'm
certain it will manage somehow.'

Mother's bell rang again.

'Oh, Eliza's never answered it,' cried Anthea; 'she never does. Oh, I
must go.'

And she went.

Her heart beat bumpingly as she climbed the stairs. Mother would be
certain to notice her eyes--well, her hand would account for that. But
the Lamb--

'No, I must NOT think of the Lamb, she said to herself, and bit her
tongue till her eyes watered again, so as to give herself something
else to think of. Her arms and legs and back, and even her tear-reddened
face, felt stiff with her resolution not to let mother be worried if she
could help it.

She opened the door softly.

'Yes, mother?' she said.

'Dearest,' said mother, 'the Lamb--'

Anthea tried to be brave. She tried to say that the Lamb and Robert were
out. Perhaps she tried too hard. Anyway, when she opened her mouth no
words came. So she stood with it open. It seemed easier to keep from
crying with one's mouth in that unusual position.

'The Lamb,' mother went on; 'he was very good at first, but he's pulled
the toilet-cover off the dressing-table with all the brushes and
pots and things, and now he's so quiet I'm sure he's in some dreadful
mischief. And I can't see him from here, and if I'd got out of bed to
see I'm sure I should have fainted.'

'Do you mean he's HERE?' said Anthea.

'Of course he's here,' said mother, a little impatiently. 'Where did you
think he was?'

Anthea went round the foot of the big mahogany bed. There was a pause.

'He's not here NOW,' she said.

That he had been there was plain, from the toilet-cover