“Tell him!” Bruno whispered to Sylvie, putting his arms round her neck.
“Tell him yourself,” said Sylvie.
“Ca’n’t,” said Bruno. “It’s a bony word.”
“Nonsense!” laughed Sylvie. “You can say it well enough, if you only try. Come!”
“Muddle—” said Bruno. “That’s a bit of it.”
“What does he say?” cried the bewildered Professor.
“He means the multiplication-table,” Sylvie explained.
The Professor looked annoyed, and shut up his note-book again. “Oh, that’s quite another thing,” he said.
“It are ever so many other things,” said Bruno. “Aren’t it, Sylvie?”
A loud blast of trumpets interrupted this conversation. “Why, the entertainment has begun!” the Professor exclaimed, as he hurried the children into the Reception-Saloon. “I had no idea it was so late!”