-and-by he began to enter
into the spirit of the thing, and had entirely forgotten his dignity
by the time Mabel reappeared. Caffyn (who had now returned from the
Featherstones', and had received an invitation from Mrs. Langton in
Mabel's absence: 'We've known him from a boy, my dear,' the former had
said in justification, 'and he can recite some things to keep the
children quiet, you know') stood in the doorway behind her, and looked
on with a smile of pity, but she saw nothing ridiculous in Mark just
then (and, as he was probably aware, he could stand such tests better
than most men). She only thought that his willingness to sacrifice
himself for others was a pleasant trait in his character.

'Don't get up, Ashburn; it's delightful to see you making yourself so
hot, my dear fellow,' said Caffyn. 'One doesn't get the chance of
seeing a successful author ramping about on all fours every day.'

'I _can't_ get up,' said Mark; and in fact a small but unpleasantly
sturdy boy had pounced on him as he paused for breath, and, with the
sense that he was doing something courageous, was in course of taming
the elephant with a hearth-brush.

'What a shame!' cried Mabel. 'Tommy, you horrid boy, you're hurting
Mr. Ashburn.' And the hearth-brush was certainly coming down with
considerable vigour on the small of the amateur elephant's back.

'I think myself,' gasped Mark, 'that I could bear being shipped off to
America now.'

'Yes, indeed,' she said compassionately; 'you mustn't be tormented any
more. Tommy, let the poor elephant alone; you've tamed him very
nicely.'

'Jumbo had his hind legs tied,' urged Tommy, who had a taste for
realism.

'I don't think that will be necessary,' objected Mark. 'I'm
beautifully tame now, Master Tommy; observe the mildness of my eye.'

'The game's over now,' said Mabel with decision. 'There, Mr. Ashburn,
your elephant life is over. Tommy, come and button my glove for me,
like a dear fellow. How dreadfully hot you are! And now Mr. Caffyn is
going to recite something; come upstairs, all of you, and listen.'

For Mrs. Langton had begged him to do something to amuse the children.
'I don't want them to dance too much,' she had said. 'If you could
manage to cool them down before supper.'

'_I'll_ cool them down!' said Caffyn to himself, with one of his
peculiar impulses to safe and secret malevolence. 'If you will get
them all together, dear Mrs. Langton,' he replied, 'I'll see what I
can do.'