"Come on up to the schoolroom; I've heaps to tell you."
Margaret refrained from following them, to avoid hearing their confidences, and still bewildered by the discovery of this new addition to the family, which might mean further problems for herself, with a little sigh of relief picked up a book and made her way to a quiet cosy seat in the drawing-room.
CHAPTER III
TRIALS
Ellice Medhurst was full of mystery and excitement as she dragged Bob towards the staircase, anxious to escape observation, leading him to the seclusion of the schoolroom, where they could talk undisturbedly of the new inmate of Oaklands, who had arrived there since Bob's last week-end at home.
"Oh, I say, I do detest her," said Ellice, as she sprang on to the table, placing her feet upon a chair and her face in her hands supported by her arms, her elbows resting upon her knees.
"She looks pretty decent," remarked Bob; "she is a sight better than the one who has just gone. I say, what a shock I gave her, didn't I? She howled like a hyena."
A shout of laughter rippled from his small sister as a memory, mutually considered humorous, roused this expression of mirth.
"I can see her now dancing about, and shrieking, 'Help!—Help!—Burglars!' as if she was being killed," continued Bob, spluttering with amusement.
"And when—you—came—and offered to call father," put in Ellice—"saying, 'What's all this? Whatever is the matter?' I just rushed back into my room and buried my head in the pillows for fear she'd hear me laughing, and guess. Just fancy, Bob, if she had? Wouldn't daddy have been angry?" And as she finished, a more sober expression came upon her face as she pictured unpleasant possibilities.