"I will," said Tilly, setting her teeth.
The two girls gripped hands in the darkness.
CHAPTER XVI
AN IMPOSSIBLE FAMILY
Amelia Welwyn, grievously overweighted by a tray containing her father's breakfast, tacked unsteadily across the floor of the drawing-room at Russell Square; and, having reached the door of her parent's bedroom, proceeded to arouse the attention of its occupant by permitting the teapot to toboggan heavily into one of the panels.
"Don't come in!" said a muffled voice.
"Half-past eleven, Daddy," announced Amelia cheerily. "Your breakfast!"
"In the fender, my child," replied the voice.
Amelia obediently put over her helm, and despite a heavy list to starboard induced by a sudden shifting of ballast (in the form of the hot-water jug) ultimately weathered the sofa and deposited the breakfast tray in the fender, without throwing overboard anything of greater moment than a piece of buttered toast.
By the fireside, in a very large armchair, sat a small, alert, wizened, and querulous old lady of eighty-one.