ow what to do
for the best. I understand you have no relatives of any kind.'

'Only my Aunt Marion.'

'Ah, that is the Mrs. Ruston whom Mr. Windlesham mentioned. She is in
India, I believe?'

'Yes,' I answered, 'but I do not know her address.'

'I can no doubt find it out in an Army List,' he said. 'But from what
Captain Knowlton told Mr. Windlesham, I fear little is to be gained in
that direction.'

From that day nothing was the same, and I soon began to realise that my
presence in the house was regarded as a nuisance. All my meals were
solitary, and I seldom had enough to eat.

'Everard!' cried Mrs. Turton, directly I had finished breakfast two
mornings after the above conversation, 'all the servants are very busy
this morning, so you must make your own bed.'

If she had told me to stand on my head, I should not have felt more
surprise.

'Don't you understand?' she demanded.

'Yes, Mrs. Turton.'

'Then why do you stand staring there? Please set about it at once.'

I went upstairs to the bedroom which I had occupied alone since the
beginning of the holidays, and after staring at the bed for a few
moments, I was about to strip off the clothes, when I heard a snigger at
the door.

'Hullo, Susan!' cried Augustus.

Darting to the dressing-table, I seized a hair-brush, and threw it at
his head. Unfortunately it hit him on the forehead, making an ugly cut,
and, of course, he at once went to show Mr. Turton, who came upstairs a
few minutes later, by which time my bed was made--after a fashion.

'What was your reason for attacking my son?' demanded Mr. Turton.

'Well,' I answered, rather sullenly, I am afraid, for I was growing
somewhat desperate, 'he should not be cheeky.'

'You will not leave this room until dinner-time,' he said, 'and your
meal will consist of bread and water.'

I spent a miserable morning staring out of the window on to the garden
and the fields beyond, without a book to pass the time, my only comfort
being the sight of Augustus with a strip of court-plaster above his left
eyebrow.

At half-past one a servant came to tell me to come down to dinner. Alone
in the schoolroom, I at first determined to refuse my food, until hunger
conquered my resolution, and I ate it every scrap. Soon afterwards Mrs.
Turton entered, but she said nothing about Augustus's injury.

'You must not spend your time in idleness,' she exclaimed.

'There was not anything to do in my bedroom,' I answered.

'Th