not run far, when Hector caught
his foot in the Captain's great-coat, which he was wearing, and came
down headlong in the road. They were close by a gate, and when
Nicholas had set Hector upon his legs, St. George hastily opened it.

"This is the first house," he said. "We'll act here;" and all, even
the Valiant Slasher, pressed in as quickly as possible. Once safe
within the grounds, they shouldered their sticks, and resumed their
composure.

"You're going to the front door," said Nicholas, "Mummers ought to go
to the back."

"We don't know where it is," said Robin, and he rang the front-door
bell. There was a pause. Then lights shone, steps were heard, and at
last a sound of much unbarring, unbolting, and unlocking. It might
have been a prison. Then the door was opened by an elderly,
timid-looking woman, who held a tallow candle above her head.

"Who's there," she said, "at this time of night?"

"We're Christmas mummers," said Robin, stoutly; "we don't know the way
to the back door, but--"

"And don't you know better than to come here?" said the woman. "Be off
with you, as fast as you can."

"You're only the servant," said Robin. "Go and ask your master and
mistress if they wouldn't like to see us act. We do it very well."

"You impudent boy, be off with you!" repeated the woman. "Master'd no
more let you nor any other such rubbish set foot in this house--"

"Woman!" shouted a voice close behind her, which made her start as if
she had been shot, "who authorizes you to say what your master will or
will not do, before you've asked him? The boy is right. You _are_ the
servant, and it is not your business to choose for me whom I shall or
shall not see."

"I meant no harm, sir, I'm sure," said the housekeeper; "but I thought
you'd never--"

"My good woman," said her master, "if I had wanted somebody to think
for me, you're the last person I should have employed. I hire you to
obey orders, not to think."

"I'm sure, sir," said the housekeeper, whose only form of argument was
reiteration, "I never thought you would have seen them--"

"Then you were wrong," shouted her master. "I will see them. Bring
them in."

He was a tall, gaunt old man, and Robin stared at him for some
minutes, wondering where he could have seen somebody very like him. At
last he remembered. It was the old gentleman of the blue cloak.

The children threw off their wraps, the housekeeper helping them, and
chattering ceaselessly, from sh