od. Their delicate mother was
occupied with many social duties, and the father, though devoted to his
pretty daughters, had little patience with their vagaries, while the
frequent screaming attacks which sounded through the house had a trying
effect on nerves already strained by long residence abroad.

Parents and servants alike breathed sighs of relief when each morning
punctually as the clock struck ten, Mamzelle Paddy came running upstairs
primed with half a dozen thrilling devices for amusement and occupation.
Viva, as ringleader and rebel-in-chief, had flatly refused to speak, or
listen to, a word of French, but when it was presently revealed to her
that the Spoopjacks understood no other language, there was no course
left but to withdraw her opposition. The Bobityshooties were English,
and stupid at that, but by the time that Nicholas Spoopjack had
succeeded in teaching them how to address him with propriety, the two
unsuspicious listeners to the conversation had themselves mastered the
lesson without once suspecting what they were about.

The adventures which those two enterprising and admirable families went
through, were as varied as they were endless, and each day brought a
thrilling development of the situation. Nicholas Spoopjack thought
nothing of going out in a diving-bell in the morning, and a balloon in
the afternoon, while the Bobityshooties entertained royalty to dinner in
the kitchen cupboard, and feasted luxuriously on the cruets, and the
pinked-out paper which covered the shelves.

"She don't teach us nuffin': we only plays!" was little Inda's summing
up of the situation; but a moment later she would repeat a dialogue
which had taken place between the rival factions during the morning,
reproducing, with the wonderful imitative faculty of children, the very
accent and gesture with which it had been delivered, and her parents
would look at each other with delighted appreciation.

Mamzelle Paddy was a grand institution, and being generously disposed
people, Mr and Mrs Wallace endeavoured to show their gratitude by
including her in the many amusements which were arranged for the
children's benefit. She accompanied them on sight-seeing expeditions,
organised games at evening parties, and on one memorable occasion paid a
visit to the circus. Pixie had always cherished a passion for clowns,
and when in Paris had appreciated nothing more than an evening at the
"Nouveau Cirque," where Auguste the Fre