"The goat?" said Lady Adela incredulously.
"No, its mother--I mean, its proprietress. She had missed the market, or something, owing, to her pony breaking down, and she had come to the station as a forlorn hope, to see if she could catch a departing goat-merchant and unload Maximilian on him."
"Maximilian?" interjected Lady Adela giddily.
"Yes--the goat. We had to call him something, you know. Her husband was very ill in bed, and Maximilian had to be sold to defray expenses, it seemed."
"And so you--er--purchased Maximilian?" said Mr. Mainwaring.
"We did," replied The Freak gravely. "That was why we had to walk. The cabman would not allow us to take Maximilian inside with us, and Max absolutely declined to sit on the box beside the cabman--which did n't altogether surprise me--so we all three had to come here on our arched insteps. I wonder where Tilly is."
"Where is the animal now?" enquired Lady Adela apprehensively. She was quite prepared to hear that Maximilian was already in the best bedroom.
"We left him on the lawn, tethered to the rain-gauge," replied Dicky. "Ah, there she is!"
Forgetting the goat and all other impediments to the course of true love, he hurried to the foot of the staircase.
III