"Come in—if you must!" cried Mr. Ellis at last, and Gerald entered.
"Well, child, and what now?" said the father, putting down a magnifying glass with which he was examining an old silver amulet.
"Please, dad," said the boy, "Brother Bob's here, and he's quite come back from the bad—you know—where he went, and Dina and I and nurse want him to come home for good. He won't give you any trouble," went on Gerald, "and he won't meddle with any of your treasures, and I shouldn't wonder if he'd teach us twins, and save you the expense of a governess, so you'd have more money to spend on—" here Gerald looked round the room—"well, on the nasty things you like."
It was not a very happy finish to his sentence, but it struck him that, happy or not, Mr. Ellis did not hear it. At the mention of Bob's name, he had risen from his seat, his face full of anger.
"Bob here?" he exclaimed. "How dare he? Tell him—no—I'll see him myself! Go down, Gerald!"
And as the boy went, Mr. Ellis came to the top of the stairs, and called in a cold, hard voice, "Robert, come up here."
"No good won't come of this, I'm afraid!" said nurse.
Bob said nothing; his face wore a strange mingling of expressions as he went upstairs.
"Come in and shut the door," said Mr. Ellis, going before him into the room.
Bob obeyed.