"A pretty couple you were to be turned loose upon an invalid," said Captain Gage, "you and Claude Haveloc."
"I am sure we always behaved admirably," said Hubert, "all the old women in the parish used to hold us up as a pattern to every mischievous urchin who plagued them. Did they not, Bessy?"
"I never heard it before," said Elizabeth, laughing.
"I allow we got into a scrape with the poachers," said Hubert; "poor Mr. Grey was really frightened then."
"You came home on a pair of shutters. Did not you?" asked Captain Gage.
"Not so bad as that," replied Hubert; "but Haveloc had his arm broken. You know Bessy, how I used to teaze him about it. I always declared that one of the poachers struck at him with a broomstick."
"And did they?" asked Margaret, with wide opened eyes.
"No. It was the stock of a gun, I believe," said Hubert Gage, looking at her with much complacency: "but if you had ever seen Claude Haveloc you could imagine how little he would enjoy such an undignified catastrophe."
"And poor Mr. Grey gave up game-keepers ever after," said Elizabeth, "and entirely neglected his fine preserves. He was so shocked at the danger two silly boys had brought upon themselves."
"And Claude got a shot in the shoulder in that adventure with the bandits," said Hubert; "some people have the luck of it."