and undeserving niece,'
he said, smiling, 'then she'll be an awful old dragon!'

'There's something in that,' observed Wilfred, taking the saucepan over to
the window for inspection. 'Perhaps she'll give me those new retorts and
things I want for my laboratory--if I ever get a laboratory,' he added
with a sigh.

'Perhaps she'll send me straight to college without expecting me to grind
for a musty old scholarship,' said Egbert, condescending to take a share
in the conversation.

'If she asks me down to Crofts for the shooting, that will be good enough
for me,' observed Peter, drawing a long breath of anticipation.

Barbara came slowly into the middle of the room and stood there, quite
unconscious of her rumpled hair and of the streak of dust that was
smeared across her face. 'I wonder what Auntie Anna will do for me?' she
murmured, more to herself than to the others. 'I hope, I do hope it
will be something new and interesting and beautiful!'

Christopher overheard her, and roused himself. He slipped off the
table and walked to his favourite position on the hearthrug, giving an
unnecessary pull to the child's hair as he passed her, which was an
attention, however, that she showed no signs of resenting. Babs never
resented anything that Kit chose to do to her; besides, she wanted to
hear what he was going to say. Whenever Kit stood like that, with his
back to the fire and his legs rather wide apart, he was always going to
say something. The odd thing was, that there was something so convincing
in his way of saying it that the family generally listened.

'Don't you fret yourselves, any of you,' he said decidedly. 'Auntie Anna
isn't going to make things pleasant for anybody in this house--not she!
Hasn't she persuaded father to do whatever she likes, all our lives?'

'What is she going to make him do now, then?' asked Wilfred, who did not
mean to give up his dream of a laboratory without a protest.

'First of all,' said Christopher, with an air of confidence, 'she'll see
that Egbert has a crammer next summer holidays; and he'll either have to
get that scholarship, or he doesn't go to Oxford at all! She'll talk about
discipline, and things like that. Aunts always do talk about discipline,
when it's for other people's children.'

'I wish you'd shut up,' grumbled Egbert, returning to his book. 'How is a
fellow to read when you're making such a clatter?'

'Then there's Peter,' continued Christopher, calmly. 'Of course