“You couldn’t expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an eye on you and caught you poaching,” said the Terror.
“Without any excuse for it. You’ve plenty of fishing of your own,” said Erebus severely.
“And if I don’t give you leave to fish my water, you’re going to sneak to the police, are you?” said Sir James in a tone of angry disgust.
The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: “We aren’t going to do anything of the kind; and we don’t want any leave to fish your water at all. We’re just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to the police and prosecuting us, then after you’ve started it you’ll get prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That’s what we came to say.”
“And that’ll teach you to be polite and answer people next time they write to you,” said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph.
On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to find words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good night, and left the room.
Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and expressed his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It was rather on the wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had been worsted in his own smoking-room, and that by two children, rankled. He was not used to being worsted, even in the heart of Africa, by much more ferocious creatures. But after sleeping on the matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, as he phrased it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the Dangerfield children were allowed to fish his water.
CHAPTER XIII
AND AN APOLOGY
The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated triumph; but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to fish in well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother’s faint appetite.
She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed, definitely ill; she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of spirit and intelligence, she was suffering from the wearisome emptiness of her life in the country. It was sapping her strength and energy; in it she would grow old long before her time. The Twins had been used to find her livelier and more spirited, keenly interested in their doings; and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot prescribed a tonic for her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches and now of the trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But she made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the springs of her being.