And so, for a while, the subject was dropped.
The following Monday week was to be more or less of a festive occasion, for it was little Marcia's birthday, and many and various were the presents destined for the little maid. Rupert's gift, however, was to be something quite out of the common, only Kenneth as yet being in his confidence.
"I am going to buy Marcia's present to-day."
So said Rupert to his brother on their way to school one morning, a few days before the eventful Monday.
"How are you going to manage it?" queried Kenneth. "The gipsy encampment is out of bounds, and you won't have time to go there after four o'clock."
"'Where there's a will, there's a way,'" replied Rupert easily.
"I wouldn't do it, old chap, if I were you." Kenneth looked rather serious. "Leave it till Saturday. If it's found out, you'll get into no end of a row, and another thing, I sometimes wonder whether mother will care for Marcia to have a monkey about the place."
"I'm sure she won't mind," said Rupert. "Besides, Marcia wants one awfully."
Kenneth said no more, seeing his brother was bent upon the matter. The idea of buying a monkey had been simmering in Rupert's head for days, owing to the fact of a gipsy lad offering him one for sale in the street a short while previously. The boy had been obliged to decline the offer for lack of means, but at the same time he had agreed to call at the gipsy encampment, which was situated about a mile out of Farley, as soon as he possibly could, with a view to considering the purchase.
And so it happened that Kenneth's counsel fell on deaf ears, for directly mid-day lessons were over, Rupert made off for the encampment, returning home with his coveted possession well before the dinner hour.