plore on their own account, she was obliged to
subside at last to her little kitchen under the archway, and employ
herself in the more practical business of boiling the water for tea. All
the guests were very soon distributed about the ruins, some admiring the
view from the battlements, some peering into the darkness of the
dungeons, and others trying to re-people the guardroom and the
banqueting-hall with knights and dames of old, and to imagine the clink
of armour and the clash of swords in the courtyard below. The Rokeby
boys were imperilling their limbs by a climb after jackdaws' nests,
oblivious of the fact that it was long past the season for eggs, and
the young birds, already in glossy black plumage, were flying round as
if in mockery at their efforts. Austin Wright, after a vain attempt to
establish an acquaintance with the ravens, had been seen racing as if
for his life with the pair in hot pursuit of his small bare legs; while
Charlie Chester, in an essay to investigate the interior of the well,
very nearly fell to the bottom, being only saved by the tail of his
jacket, which luckily caught on a prickly bramble bush, and held him
suspended over the dark gulf till he was rescued by his indignant
father.

In the meantime tea had been spread in the courtyard. Two great hissing
urns were carried from the kitchen and placed upon the grass, and both
grown-ups and children, abandoning the study of mediaeval history or the
pursuit of jackdaws, collected together to discuss sandwiches, cakes,
and jam puffs, in spite of Mr. Chester's laughing protestations that
such modern luxuries were out of place, and an ox roasted whole or a red
deer pasty would have been a more appropriate feast for the occasion.
Even the ravens came hopping round at the sight of the cups and plates,
and waxed quite friendly on the strength of sundry pieces of bun and
bread and butter, which they snapped up with voracious bills, growing
too forward, indeed, as the meal progressed, for they stole the curate's
tartlet, which he had laid down in an unguarded moment on the grass, and
shamelessly snatched Bertie Rokeby's sponge-cake out of his very hand.

"I'm sure the Wrights enjoyed themselves," Isobel told her mother
afterwards. "Harold had seven rice buns and ten victoria biscuits, and
Charlotte and Aggie ate a whole plateful of cheese-cakes between them.
Belle says they always have the most enormous appetites, and at her last
party Eric took four