etimes
it dwindled down to a single word, such as "Prudence," which was all he
could extract from the touching record that "Balbus, having scorched the
tail of the dragon, went away." His pupils liked the short morals best,
as it left them more room for marginal illustrations, and in this
instance they required all the space they could get to exhibit the
rapidity of the hero's departure.

Their report of the state of things was discouraging. That most
fashionable of watering-places, Little Mendip, was "chockfull" (as the
boys expressed it) from end to end. But in one Square they had seen no
less than four cards, in different houses, all announcing in flaming
capitals "ELIGIBLE APARTMENTS." "So there's plenty of choice, after all,
you see," said spokesman Hugh in conclusion.

"That doesn't follow from the data," said Balbus, as he rose from the
easy chair, where he had been dozing over _The Little Mendip Gazette_.
"They may be all single rooms. However, we may as well see them. I shall
be glad to stretch my legs a bit."

An unprejudiced bystander might have objected that the operation was
needless, and that this long, lank creature would have been all the
better with even shorter legs: but no such thought occurred to his
loving pupils. One on each side, they did their best to keep up with his
gigantic strides, while Hugh repeated the sentence in their father's
letter, just received from abroad, over which he and Lambert had been
puzzling. "He says a friend of his, the Governor of----_what_ was that
name again, Lambert?" ("Kgovjni," said Lambert.) "Well, yes. The
Governor of----what-you-may-call-it----wants to give a _very_ small
dinner-party, and he means to ask his father's brother-in-law, his
brother's father-in-law, his father-in-law's brother, and his
brother-in-law's father: and we're to guess how many guests there will
be."

There was an anxious pause. "_How_ large did he say the pudding was to
be?" Balbus said at last. "Take its cubical contents, divide by the
cubical contents of what each man can eat, and the quotient----"

"He didn't say anything about pudding," said Hugh, "--and here's the
Square," as they turned a corner and came into sight of the "eligible
apartments."

"It _is_ a Square!" was Balbus' first cry of delight, as he gazed around
him. "Beautiful! Beau-ti-ful! Equilateral! _And_ rectangular!"

The boys looked round with less enthusiasm. "Number nine is the first
with a card," said prosaic