to make inquiries as to the
cause of the outrage. As might have been expected, Fenleigh J. was
found to be the owner of the pillow which had done the damage, and he
was accordingly kept back on the following day to pay the usual penalty
of an imposition.

"I'll take your luggage on with me," said Valentine. "You get out at
Hornalby, the first station from here, and it's only about a quarter of
a mile from there to Brenlands. Any one will tell you the way."

It turned out a wet evening. Queen Mab and her court had already been
waiting tea for nearly half an hour, when Valentine exclaimed, "Hallo!
here he is!"

The expected guest took apparently no notice of the rain; his cloth
cricket cap was perched on the back of his head, and he had not even
taken the trouble to turn up the collar of his jacket. He walked up
the path in a cautious manner, as though he expected at every step to
trip over the wire of a spring-gun; but when he came within a dozen
yards of the house he quickened his pace, for Aunt Mabel had opened the
door, and was standing ready to give him a welcome.

"Why, boy, how late you are! You must be nearly starving!"

"I couldn't come before," he began; "I had some work to do, and--"

"Yes, you rascal! I've heard all about it. Come in, and Jane shall
rub you down with a dry cloth."

Jack left off jingling his keys; he did not like being "rubbed down,"
but he submitted to the process with great good-humour. It was the
cosiest old kitchen; the table was the whitest, and the pots and pans
the brightest, that could be imagined; and Jane, the cook, groomed him
down as though brushing a damp jacket with a dry glass-cloth was the
most enjoyable pastime in life. In the parlour it was just the same:
the pretty china cups and saucers, and the little bunches of bright
flowers, only made all the nice things there were to eat seem more
attractive; and the company were as happy and gay as though it was
everybody's birthday, and they had all met to assist one another in
keeping up the occasion with a general merry-making. Jack alone was
quiet and subdued, for the simple reason that he had never seen
anything like it in his life before.

Queen Mab, strongly entrenched at the head of the table, behind the
urn, sugar basin, and cream jug, held this line of outworks against any
number of flank attacks in the shape of empty cups, the old silver
teapot apparently containing an inexhaustible supply of ammunition