o'clock they were taken home, having
thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

When Mr. Allonby returned to them a few days later there was a great
deal to tell him. He took the children more than once to see Lady
Isobel at her hotel, and Mr. Egerton got into the way of coming round
in the evening to have a smoke with him. Bobby and True thought this
winter was a delightful time altogether, and when the wedding-day drew
near they could hardly contain themselves for excitement.

It was to be a very quiet one, and the guests were few in number. Miss
Robsart was to be one of them. Lady Isobel had met her by this time
and took a great liking to her; she went to see her sister, not once
only, but a good many times, and when she came round to see Bobby and
True the day before the wedding, she said to them, 'Do you know I have
my head full of plans for you all? I will not tell you now, but
perhaps when the spring comes you shall hear.'

'Father is going away from us in the spring,' said Bobby sorrowfully.
Then a twinkle came into his brown eyes: 'Me and Nobbles makes up plans
too in bed; we runned after father once, we hided from him in his
motor, and then he had to keep us.'

'Yes, but you aren't going to do that again,' said True, looking at him
severely. 'Dad is going across the sea; you couldn't follow him there.'

'I could follow him anywheres!' said Bobby earnestly.

'Ah! but you wouldn't like to displease your father by doing so,' said
Lady Isobel. 'He wants you to stay at home and learn as fast as you
can, and grow as fast as you can. And then when you get quite big and
clever you will be able to go about with him.'

'Mother said I was to be his kerpanion,' said Bobby. 'I don't want to
go to school.'

'Ah! my plan is better than school,' said Lady Isobel.

She would say no more, and Mr. Egerton, happening to come into the room
and hear her, turned the whole thing into a joke at once.

'Yes, Bobby, I'll whisper some of her plans for you. She is going to
start a school on new principles. It's a school for grown-ups; you are
to be the schoolmaster and True the mistress. You will have to teach
the old men how to slide banisters and play hide-and-seek. There will
be a class for those who don't know how to make up stories in bed; they
must be taught how to do it. Another class will have to learn how to
see robbers and Indians when it's getting dusk. It only needs a little
explanation and then it is quite eas