mind Sir James when we got used
to him."

"But we should! And look how we stopped the Cruncher!"

"Sir James isn't like the Cruncher--at all," said the Terror.

"All stepfathers are alike; and they're beastly!" cried Erebus.

"Now, it's no good your getting yourself obstinate about it," said the
Terror firmly. "That won't be of any use at all, if they've made up
their minds. But what's bothering me is what that old cat meant by
saying that the Morgans were rovers."

Erebus' frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic
utterance of Mrs. Blenkinsop. Then she said in a tone of considerable
relief:

"She must have meant that he wasn't really in earnest about marrying
Mum."

"Yes, that's what she did mean," growled the Terror. "And she'll go
about telling everybody that he's only fooling."

"But I don't think he is. I don't think he would," said Erebus quickly.

"No more do I," said the Terror.

They walked nearly fifty yards in silence. Then the Terror's face
cleared and brightened; and he said cheerfully:

"I know the thing to do! I'll go and ask him his intentions. That's
what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the Cut--you know:
that fellow from Rowington--was fooling about with Miss Hawley."

"All right, we'll go and ask him," said Erebus with equal cheerfulness.

"No, no, you can't go. I must go alone," said the Terror quickly.
"It's the kind of thing the men of the family always do--people said so
about Miss Hawley--and I'm the only man of the family about. If Uncle
Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might send for him to do
it."

Erebus burst into bitter complaint. She alleged that the restrictions
which were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied
to her, since she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in
everything else they ought to cooperate in this; that he was much more
successful in those exploits in which they did cooperate, than in those
which he performed alone.

"It's no good talking like that: it isn't the thing to do," said the
Terror with very cold severity. "You know what Mrs. Morton said about
Miss Hawley and the Cut--that the men of the family did it."

"You're only a boy; and I'm as old as you!" snapped Erebus.

"Well, when there isn't a man to do a thing, a boy does it. So it's no
use you're making a fuss," said the Terror in a tone of finality.

Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would