ues
began to wag.

Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of
London, one morning met the Twins in the village. They greeted her
politely and made to escape. But she was in the mood, her most
constant mood, to babble. She stopped them, and with a knowing air,
and even more offensive smile, said:

"So, young people, we're going to hear the sound of wedding bells very
soon in Little Deeping, are we?"

Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about
them; but the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness,
said:

"Are we?"

"I should have thought you would have known all about it," she said
with a cackling little giggle. "Mind you tell me as soon as you're
told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother."

"What do you mean?" snapped the Terror with a disconcerting suddenness;
and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare into
her own.

"Oh, nothing--nothing!" cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by his
sternness. "Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother--But
there--there's probably nothing in it--the Morgans always were
rovers--one foot at sea and one on shore--I dare say he'll be in the
middle of Africa before the week is out. Good morning--good morning."

With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into
the grocer's shop.

The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning. Then Erebus
said: "Silly old idiot!"

The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning. At last he broke out:
"This won't do! We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more
cheerful for her."

"But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said? It
would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a
panic.

The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.

"_Do_ you think there's anything in it?" cried Erebus.

"I dare say there is. Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's
always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.

"Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.

"Why must we?"

"It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried
Erebus fiercely.

"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror. "She
does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going
anywhere. And, after all, we shouldn't