"Dear Maggie, I promise; I am your devoted and humble servant for the rest of the day."
"Isn't father delicious?" said Marjorie, as they waited in the passage.
"Delicious!" retorted Eric; "what a girl's expression! One would think you were going to eat him. I tell you what it is, pater ought to be very much obliged to us for waking him. He was lazy, but he'll have a time of it for the rest of the day."
CHAPTER X.
THE REIGN OF CHAOS.
cold bath and a rapid toilet afterward effectually removed all traces of sleep from Mr. Wilton's eyes.
"I feel like a sort of knight putting on my armor," he said to himself. "I am going on a crusade for the rest of the day. A crusade against all my established customs, against all my dearly loved order, against my newspaper, my books, my quiet pleasant meals. Well, it is for the sake of the children; and their mother, bless her"—here he glanced at the picture of the girl over the mantelpiece—"would smile at me if she could. Oh, yes, I buckle on my armor cheerfully enough. Hey, for Chaos! Hey, for wild Mirth and childish Frivolity! Here I come, Eric and Maggie—poor patient little mice that you are! Here's father at last. Give me your hand, Mag: you may jump on my shoulder, if you like. Now for a race downstairs to the garden, and then you can tell me what you got me out of my bed in the middle of the night for."