her life in putting things away after the twins had done with them, and
that they were more trouble to her than all the rest of the family had
been. For Miss Bird had lived in the house for nearly thirty years, and
had acted as educational starter to the whole race of young Clintons, to
Dick, Humphrey, Walter, Cicely, and Frank, and had taken a new lease of
life when the twins had appeared on the scene with the expectation of a
prolonged period of service. She was a thin, voluble lady, as old as the
Squire, to whom she looked up as a god amongst mankind; her educational
methods were of an older generation and included the use of the globes
and the blackboard, but she was most conscientious in her duties, her
religious principles were unexceptionable, and she filled a niche at
Kencote which would have seemed empty without her.

"O Mrs. Clinton I am so glad to see you back," she said, almost
ecstatically, "and you too Cicely dear--oh my a new hat and such a
pretty one! You look quite the town lady, upon my word and how did you
enjoy the ball? you must tell me all about it every word now Joan and
Nancy I will not put away your things for you once more and that I
declare and you hear me say it you are the most shockingly untidy
children and if I have told you that once I have told you a hundred
times O Mrs. Clinton a new bonnet too and I declare it makes you look
five years younger _at_ least."

Mrs. Clinton took this compliment equably, and asked if the twins had
been good girls.

"Well, good!" echoed the old starling, "they know best whether they have
been good, of their lessons I say nothing and marks will show, but to
get up as you might say in the dead of the night and let themselves down
from a window with sheets twisted into a rope and not fit to be seen
since, all creased, _most_ dangerous, besides the impropriety for great
girls of thirteen if any one had been passing as I have told them and
should be _obliged_ to report this behaviour to you Mrs. Clinton on the
first opportunity."

Joan and Nancy both glanced at their mother tentatively. "We were only
playing Jacobites and Roundheads," said Joan. "It makes it more real."

"And it wasn't in the middle of the night," added Nancy. "It was four
o'clock, and quite light."

"Why, you might have killed yourselves!" exclaimed Cicely.

"_Exactly_ what I said the very words," corroborated the old starling.

"We tied the sheets very tight," said Joan.

"And tested