We had put on our clothes. We had met her but, good Heaven! what a
Rendezvous! She, and Angel, and I were pallid with suppressed emotions,
while The Seraph's face was flushed crimson. He was weeping loudly, as he
followed in our wake, and walking with some difficulty, since Angel and I,
in our agitation, had put his trousers on back to front.
Mrs. Handsomebody placed us in a row, on three chairs in the dining-room,
and seated herself opposite to us. After removing her bonnet, and giving it
to Mary Ellen to carry upstairs to the wardrobe, she said:
"If I believed that you realized the enormity of what you have done, I
should write to South America to your father, and tell him that I would no
longer undertake the responsibility of three boys so evilly inclined. What
do you suppose my sensations were when, at the close of the lecture, the
other ladies, the professor, our pastor, and myself adjourned to the garden
for tea, to find you three perched, almost nude, on a wall, in such
company?"
"Do you know that those people are not respectable? The man, I am told, is
a rake, who attends cockfights, and the mother of those children has been
seen in the garden--_tight_!"
"Was that the lady in pink satin?" asked Angel, showing interest for the
first time.
"I daresay. One would expect to find her in pink satin."
The lecture went on, but I did not hear it; my mind dwelt insistently on
thoughts of the lady in pink.
"What did she do, please?" I interrupted, thoughtlessly, at last.
"Who do?"
"The lady. When she was tight."
"So that is where your thoughts were," said Mrs. Handsomebody, angrily,
"nice speculations indeed, for a little boy!"
"I should yike a little nushment, please," interrupted The Seraph in his
turn.
"Not nourishment, but punishment is what you will get, young man," replied
our governess, tartly. "What you three need is discipline at the hands of a
strong man. We shall now go upstairs."
V
It was over. The gas was out, and we were in bed. Not snugly in bed, but
smartingly; each trying to find a cool place on the sheets, and things very
much bedewed by the tears of The Seraph.
"I don't care," said Angel, rather huskily. "It was worth it, I'd do it
again like a shot."
"So would I," I assented. "Whatever do you s'pose they're up to now!"
And, indeed, the thought of this spirited family coloured all my dreams. As
in dancing rainbows they whirled about my bed: Mops with the hose; Bunny
and Bill twinkling on stilts; Simon with all the dogs at his heels; and
above all, the lady in pink, presiding like a golden-haired goddess, and
very "tight."
We were still in black disgrace at breakfast. Scarcely dared we raise our
eyes to the cold face of Mrs. Handsomebody, lest she should read in them
some yearning recollection of yesterday's misdeeds. Large spoonfuls of
porridge and thin milk made unwonted gurgling noises as they hurried down
our throats to our empty young stomachs.
When we had done, and The Seraph had offered thanks to God for this good
meal, Mrs. Handsomebody marched us, like conscripts to the schoolroom,
where she assigned to each of us a task to keep him busy until her return
from market.
But the front door had barely closed upon her black bombazine dress, when
we scampered to the head of the stairs, threw ourselves upon the hand-rail,
and slid lightly to the bottom, and from there ran to find Mary Ellen in
the parlour.
She was sweeping out the sombre room with such listless movements of her
plump, red arms, that the moist tea-leaves on the floor scarce moved
beneath the broom.
"Sure, I niver see sich a cairpet as this in all me born days," she was
saying. "If I was to swape till I fell prostitute, I'd niver git it clane."
"Oh, don't bother about the work, Mary Ellen!" we cried. "Just listen to
the adventure we had yesterday!"
"I listened to the hindermost part of it," she returned, "and it sounded
purty lively."
"Who cares?" said Angel. "It didn't hurt a bit."
"Not a bit," assented The Seraph, cheerily. "She gets weaker evwy day, and
I get stwonger."
We rushed upon Mary Ellen then with the whole story of our new friends,
dwelling, especially, upon our visit below stairs, and the rollicking men
and maid-servants we found there.
"They were drinking beer-and-gin," concluded Angel, "and the scullery-maid
did a breakdown for us in a pair of hunting boots."
"It beats all," said Mary Ellen, leaning on her broom, "what kapes me in a
dull place like this, whin there do be sich wild goin's on just around the
corner like. I'd give a month's wage to see thim folks."
"Come around with me," suggested Angel, "and I'll introduce you."
"Oh, no, Masther Angel. Misther Watlin, me young man, wouldn't want me to
be goin' into mixed company widout him. An it do seem a pity, too, since I
have me new blue dress, for if ever I look lovely, I look lovely in blue."
And she attacked the tea-leaves with a lagging broom.
Mrs. Handsomebody, when dinner was over, fixed us with her cold grey eye,
and said:
"Since you have proved yourselves utterly untrustworthy, you shall be
locked in your bedroom, during my absence this afternoon. Mary Ellen, who
will be engaged in cleaning the coal cellar, has been instructed to supply
you with bread and milk at four o'clock. By exemplary behaviour today, you
will ensure a return to your customary privileges tomorrow."