sn't
really."

"Now!" shouted Bunny triumphantly, "you see you are quite wrong,
Sophie."

"Open the door, Bunny, this minute," said Miss Kerr decidedly, "I am
surprised that you should behave in such a naughty way, just when I
thought you were going to be a good girl."

"I'll open it now, indeed I will," cried Bunny, "and please, please
don't be angry with us. We are so sorry we ran away from Sophie,
indeed we are, and that is the reason we came up here, just to tell
you so."

All the time the child was talking she was also working away at the
key, trying her very best to open the door. But no matter how she
turned or pulled it, round it would not go, and at last, hot and
tired with so many violent efforts, she begged Mervyn to try if he
could make it turn.

"No, Bunny, I can't," said the boy sadly, after working patiently
at the key for some time. "It's no use, I can't do it at all."

"Oh dear, oh dear!" cried Bunny in a miserable voice, "what shall we
do? Miss Kerr, dear, we can't open the door, it's locked quite
fast."

"Take the key out of the lock and push it under the door, and I will
try and open it from this side," said Miss Kerr; "it was really very
naughty of you to lock yourselves up in such a way. But be quick and
give me the key."

After a good deal of pulling and tugging, Bunny at last managed to
get the key out of the lock, and kneeling on the floor she tried
with all the strength of her tiny hands to push it out under the
door.

But the key was too large or the door fitted too closely, and the
little girl gave a cry of alarm as she found that it was quite
impossible to get it out into the passage.

"Oh, Mervyn, dear, it won't go out! Oh! Miss Kerr, what shall we
do?" she cried, bursting into tears; "if we can't open the door what
shall we do?"

"And I am so hungry," said Mervyn in a doleful tone. "How nasty it
will be to be stuck in here for ever! Oh, pray open the door! Oh!
pray open the door, Miss Kerr."

"Throw the key out of the window, Bunny," said Miss Kerr, "and I
will go round and pick it up, and let you out in a minute."

"Oh! the window is shut. The window is shut," cried the two children
in despair, "and we cannot reach to open it. What shall we do? What
shall we do?"

"Good gracious!" exclaimed Miss Kerr, "who can have shut the
window?"

"I am sorry to say I did, miss," said the housemaid. "The wind was
so strong upon the window that was open, that I shut it, intending