the jackdaws chattered and darted about the tower as usual,
but there was not one other living thing to be seen. "Dull, horribly
dull!" Ethelwyn thought as she knelt up in the window-seat and pressed
her nose against the glass. It was just as bad inside the room; there
was Miss Unity's stiff upright figure, there was her needle going in and
out of her canvas, there was the red rose gradually unfolding with every
stitch. There was Pennie, bent nearly double over a fairy book, with
her elbows on her knees and a frown of interest on her brow. There was
nothing to see, nothing to do, no one to talk to. Ethelwyn gaped
wearily.

Then her idle glance fell on the clock. Would it _always_ be twelve
o'clock that morning? And from that it passed to the Chinese mandarin,
which stood close to it. He was a little fellow, with a shining bald
head and a small patch of hair on each side of it; his face, which was
broad, had no features to speak of, and yet bore an expression of feeble
good-nature. Ethelwyn knew that the merest touch would set his head
nodding in a helpless manner, and she suddenly felt a great longing to
do it. But that was strictly forbidden; no one must touch the mandarin
except Miss Unity; and, though she was generally quite willing to make
him perform, Ethelwyn did not feel inclined to ask her. She wanted to
do it herself. "If she would only go out of the room," thought the
child, "I'd make him wag his head in a minute, whatever Pennie said."

Curiously enough Bridget appeared at the door just then with a message.

"If you please, ma'am," she said, "could Cook speak to you in the
kitchen about the preserving?"

Now was Ethelwyn's opportunity, and she lost no time. She went quickly
up to the mantel-piece directly Miss Unity closed the door, and touched
the mandarin gently on the head.

"Look, Pennie! look!" she cried.

Pennie raised her face from her book with an absent expression, which
soon changed to horror as she saw the mandarin wagging his head with
foolish solemnity. Ethelwyn stood by delighted.

"I'll make him go faster," she said, and raised herself on tiptoe, for
the mantel-piece was high.

"Don't! don't!" called out Pennie in an agony of alarm; but it was too
late. Growing bolder, Ethelwyn gave the mandarin such a sharp tap at
the back of his head that he lost his balance and toppled down on the
hearth with a horrible crash.

There he lay, his poor foolish head rolling about on t