'Fiddlesticks!' said Mrs. Sidebottom.
However, she stood up and went into the dining-room.
A moment later the captain heard an exclamation. Then his mother left the dining-room, and he heard her ascend the stairs. Shortly after she descended, and re-entered the room with a face the colour of a table-cloth, or, to be more exact, of the same tone as her eyelashes.
'Well,' said the Captain languidly, 'have the oak-leaves and acorns disappeared in the wash?'
'Oh, Lamb! what is to be done? Jeremiah will never forgive us. He will feel this acutely—as an insult. That owl—that owl of a maid has ruined our prospects.'
'What has she done?'
'And not one of the waiters, though paid half a guinea each, observed it.'
'What was done?'
'She put a sheet on the table, and made up your bed with the oak-leaves and acorns!'
CHAPTER II.