efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent
daughter with any great severity. But even so, Erebus did not receive
these milder rebukes in the proper meek spirit. Unlike the philosophic
Terror, who for the most part accepted his mother's just rebukes, after
a doubtful exploit, with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always
make out a case for herself; and she did so now.

Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was
not really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a
descent on the house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within
the sphere of the laws of hospitality.

"Besides he never behaved like a guest," she went on in a bitterly
aggrieved tone. "He was always making himself objectionable to every
one--especially to me. And if he was always trying to score off me,
I'd a perfect right to score off him. And anyhow, I wasn't going to
let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it. He'd be
a perfectly beastly stepfather--you know he would."

This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to
discuss; and flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the
discussion by telling Erebus not to do it again. She knew that however
bitterly Erebus might protest against a just rebuke, she would take it
sufficiently to heart. She was sure that she would not stone another
guest.

With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and
Sir Maurice enjoyed very much his three days' stay. The Twins, though
they were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always
fell after a signal exploit that came to their mother's notice, were
very pleasant companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of
Little Deeping were grateful after the London whirl. Also he had many
talks with his sister on the matter of settling down in life, a course
of action she frequently urged on him.

When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness. It was not acute
boredom; they were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went
every morning to study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned
English and French with her mother. Their afternoon leisure,
therefore, rarely palled on them.

One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus
suggested that they should begin by ambushing Wiggins. They went,
therefore, toward Mr. Carrington's house which stood nearly a mile away
on the outskirts of Li