e said firmly; "see you
shut the door tight. I shall come round and lock it after a little!"

The great lout went away _boo-hooing_ like a "soft" schoolboy whom a
sturdier comrade has sent home provided with something substantial to
tell his mother. Anything more unlike the idea which we, in common
with all Breckonside, had formed of the dreaded "mounster" of the Moat
Grange, could not well be imagined.

Then his sister turned to us, and in the most conventional way possible
she asked us to go into the house "to drink a dish of tea!"

It was hardly the hour for this, but our long morning's jaunt in the
open air and varied excitements had not at all taken away our
appetites. We were literally as hungry as hunters.

I think, if Elsie and I had kept all our wits about us, that we should
have refused such an invitation. But children often do very bold
things through sheer thoughtlessness and curiosity. And we were little
more than children, for all our age.

But it all turned out well for us--indeed, even better than that. We
had supped so full of surprises that day, that at this point I think
hardly anything would have sufficed us or come up to our demands!
Perhaps an introduction to a company of sheeted ghosts, or an
invitation to take afternoon tea with blood-boltered Banquo, might have
filled the bill of our expectation.

As it fell out, nothing was ever more dull and orderly, Miss Orrin
showed us into a neatly arranged parlour, with the usual stuffy smell
from unopened windows. She left us a minute alone to examine the
knick-knacks, while she went elsewhere, doubtless to arrange matters
with her erring brother Jeremy. We were still in the dark as to the
crime he had committed, and, each remaining seated on the edge of a
chair, looked about us curiously, with our ears at a permanent full
cock.

Miss Orrin had pulled up the blinds, and through them we could see the
wide green lawn, broken here and there by the dense plots of lilies,
which almost formed groves in some places. The parlour was a large
room, covered with faded yellow paper, bearing traces of a blue flower,
perhaps wreaths of forget-me-nots, but all so faint that it was only a
strong imagination which could again body them forth. The furniture
was chiefly of old black oak, with an extraordinary number of chests
with various ornamental work round the walls. These had been covered,
presumably by Miss Orrin, with bright-coloured chintz of a sa