Mr. Mainwaring came timidly to his wife's aid.
"Is there a mother, my boy?" he asked.
"Yes, there is a mother," replied Dicky hastily. "Oh, yes," he repeated with more confidence, "certainly there is a mother."
"Any sisters?"
"There is a small girl--a dear. And I have a kind of notion there are some twins somewhere. Tilly--"
"Any brothers?"
Dicky smiled, apparently at some amusing thought.
"Yes," he said, "there is Percy. A sterling fellow, Perce! I wonder where he is, by the way. If he were here he might be able to do something with the goat. Any one would respect Percy--even a goat."
Lady Adela sighed despairingly. Mr. Mainwaring, taking the goat by the horns, so to speak, asked his son to elucidate the mystery once and for all.
"Did n't I tell you about the goat?" asked Dick in surprise. "Well, it was like this. When Tilly and I were hunting for a cab in the rain at the station just now, we met a woman with a goat, in tears."