r by himself in the schoolroom--and _no_
marmalade!--No, Billy, not one drop!"

"We all saw him lock the door," said Drina honestly.

"And you let him? Oh, Drina!--And Ellen! Katie! No marmalade for Miss
Drina--none for any of the children. Josie, mother feels dreadfully
because you all have been so naughty. Winthrop!--your finger! Instantly!
Clemence, baby, where on earth did you acquire all that grime on your
face and fists?" And to her brother: "Such a household, Phil! Everybody
incompetent--including me; everything topsy-turvy; and all five dogs
perfectly possessed to lie on that pink rug in the music room.--_Have_
they been there to-day, Drina?--while you were practising?"

"Yes, and there are some new spots, mother. I'm _very_ sorry."

"Take the children away!" said Mrs. Gerard. But she bent over, kissing
each culprit as the file passed out, convoyed by the amply revenged
nurses. "No marmalade, remember; and mother has a great mind _not_ to
come up at bedtime and lean over you. Mother has no desire to lean over
her babies to-night."

To "lean over" the children was always expected of this mother; the
direst punishment on the rather brief list was to omit this intimate
evening ceremony.

"M-mother," stammered the Master of Fox Hounds, "you _will_ lean over
us, won't you?"

"Mother hasn't decided--"

"Oh, muvver!" wailed Josie; and a howl of grief and dismay rose from
Winthrop, modified to a gurgle by the forbidden finger.

"You _will_, won't you?" begged Drina. "We've been pretty bad, but not
bad enough for that!"

"I--Oh, yes, I will. Stop that noise, Winthrop! Josie, I'm going to lean
over you--and you, too, Clemence, baby. Katie, take those dogs away
immediately; and remember about the marmalade."

Reassured, smiling through tears, the children trooped off, it being the
bathing hour; and Mrs. Gerard threw her fur stole over one shoulder and
linked her slender arm in her brother's.

"You see, I'm not much of a mother," she said; "if I was I'd stay here
all day and every day, week in and year out, and try to make these poor
infants happy. I have no business to leave them for one second!"

"Wouldn't they get too much of you?" suggested Selwyn.

"Thanks. I suppose that even a mother had better practise an artistic
absence occasionally. Are they not sweet? _What_ do you think of them?
You never before saw the three youngest; you saw Drina when you went
east--and Billy was a few months old--what do yo