“I wish he had been a girl,” said Norah, who came in for so much teasing from her two brothers during the holidays that she did not welcome the idea of having another boy in the house. “We could have had such fun together, and perhaps she might have asked us to stay with her some day. I should love to pay visits! I wonder if father will take us up to London in turns, now that he has begun. I do hope he will, for it would be great fun staying in Kensington. I remember Miss Carr when we were in London; she was a funny old thing, but I liked her awfully. She was often cross, but after she had scolded for about five minutes, she used to repent, and give us apples. She will give you apples, Hilary, if you are very good!”
Hilary screwed up her little nose with an expression of disdain. Apples were not much of a treat to people who had an orchard at home, and she had outgrown the age of childish joy at the gift of such trifles. Before she could speak, however, the door burst open, and Raymond precipitated himself into the room. He was a big, broad fellow of sixteen, for he and Lettice were twins, though widely differing in appearance. Raymond had a flat face, thickly speckled over with freckles, reddish brown hair, and a pair of brown eyes which fairly danced with mischief. It was safe to prophesy that in less than two minutes from the time that he entered the room where his sisters were sitting, they would all three be shrieking aloud in consternation, and the present instance was no exception to the rule. It was very simply managed. He passed one hand over the table where lay the socks and stockings which had been paired by Hilary’s industrious fingers, and swept them, helter-skelter, on the floor. He nudged Norah’s elbow, so that the needle which she was threading went deep into her fingers, and chucked Lettice under the chin, so that she bit her tongue with a violence which was really painful. This done, he plunged both hands into his pockets and danced a hornpipe on the hearthrug, while the girls abused him at the pitch of their voices.
“Raymond Bertrand, you are the most horrid, ungentlemanly, nasty, rude boy I ever knew!”
“If you were older you’d be ashamed of yourself. It is only because you are a stupid, ignorant little schoolboy that you think it funny to be unkind to girls.”
“Very well, then! You have given me all my work to do over again; now I won’t make toffee this afternoon, as I promised!”
“I don’t want your old toffee. I can buy toffee in the village if I want it,” retorted Raymond cheerfully. “Besides, I’m going out to toboggan with Bob, and I shan’t be home until dark. You girls will have to go and amuse Freer. He is up, and wants something to do. I’m not going to stay indoors on a jolly afternoon to talk to the fellow, so you’ll have to do it instead.”
“Indeed, we’ll do nothing of the kind; we have our work to do, and it is bad enough to have two tiresome boys on our hands without looking after a third. He is your friend, and if you won’t amuse him, he will have to stay by himself.”
“All right! Nice, hospitable people you are! Leave him alone to be as dull as he likes—it’s no matter to me. I told him that you would look after him, so the responsibility is off my shoulders.” Raymond paused, pointed in a meaning manner towards a curtained doorway at the end of the room, tiptoed up to the table, and finished his reply in a tragic whisper. “And I’ve settled him on the couch in the drawing-room, so you had better not speak so loudly, because he can hear every word you say!”
With this parting shot, Mr Raymond took his departure, banging the door after him, while his sisters sat paralysed, staring at each other with distended eyes.
“How awful! What must he think? We can’t leave him alone after this. Hilary, you are the eldest, go and talk to him.”