The Terrible Twins

t all's well that ends well; and Wiggins escaped lightly, with a couple of days in bed. The adventure, however, induced a change in her attitude to him; she was far les

that more than once he remonstrated b

nor: they did their lessons; they played their games; then tended the inmates of the cats' home

ll which set the villagers grumbling that they left no fish for any one else. Also the Twins tried to get leave to fish Sir James Morgan's preserved water, higher up the stream. But Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, was very firm in his refusal to give them leave: for no reason that the Twins coul

t it was not the unbroken series of visits to cats' homes Lady Ryehampton had arranged for him; and he enjoyed it very much. On his return

nts of Great Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of Middle Deeping), and Little Deeping were stirred to the very depths of their being when the news came that it had been let to a German princess. The women, at

nterested or impressed. Erebus was more resentful than the Terror; and it is to be suspected that the high patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was in some degree owing to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one af

pretty pass when it was suggested to an English girl, a D

nce who you modeled yourself on," said the Terror

ed, attend any of the three churches, for she had brought with her her own Lutheran pastor. They only saw her on her afternoon drives, a stiff little figure, thickl

feared lest she should develop consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the excellent Deeping air would strengthen he

ordered her to eat plenty of fruit. It was not the best season for fruit: strawberries were over and raspberries were coming to an end. Mrs. Dangerfield mad

as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling their bicycles out

got an

; "Thank goodness! I was beginning to get afraid that nothing was ever g

t we make a raid on the peach-garden. They say the Grange peaches are better than any h

ce was bright with the sterling spirit of the patriot. Then after a pause she added reluctan

" said the Terror quickly. "And they're the very thing for Mum. Bana

ision. "But how are we going to get into the peach-ga

eaves to put the peaches in. Mum will like them ever so much better with

found the Terror tying the landing-net they had borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing, to the b

d made their raid earlier in the summer on its strawberry beds. A screen of trees runs down from the home wood along the walls of th

ith slow caution above the wall, and surveyed the garden. It was empty and silent, save for

-net up to him. He chose his peach, the ripest he could see; slipped the net under it, flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the wall, and lowere

or rather sprawled, her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von Aschersleben, who was following faithfully the doctor's instructions that her little charge should spend her time in the open air, but was doing her

mouth was open, her face was most painfully crimson, and from her short, but extremely ti

sweat stood on her brow; the story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her lap; and she wa

he garden wall. She could not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a peach rose and vanished over the top of the

tly to the end of the wall of pear-tree. As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the wall, a fair-haired boy. Ev

ess; he smiled amicably, raised his cap and sa

s not going to make admission of guilt by a hasty and per

ss a little haughtily, hesitatin

or truthfully, but not quite accurately; f

had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and his serene guileless face and

autiful gray eyes; and though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line from the cheek-bone to the corner of the chin

he said. "It's like holdin

he princess, with i

tle breeze blowing over the top

at each other with curious examining

cool place. You'd find it very refreshing," said the Terror

esolutely at the sleeping baroness. The sight of that ri

very jolly in the wood-the three of us,"

back at the sleeping but unbeautiful baroness

ou wel

s. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in the Weald before they were any Ho

d reassured; but s

roness were to

t the baroness snoring? I thought it was a pig," he said frankly.

f the princess. She cast one more look back at her

ied fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. He gave their full and so little-used names

ng from one to the other with curious, rather timid, pleased eyes. She saw the landing-net that Erebus had fa

ap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through without difficulty, took a na

the Terror to the princess who was followin

af never been in this wood t

est part of the estate," cried the Terror in the liveliest surpr

sedately. "The Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk

ack, sticking in the gardens

s slack?" said

ll the same those gardens are big enough; t

Baroness Von Aschersleben would be shocked,"

us, politely trying to keep a touch of

being delicate,"

in the open air a lot and do run about, you don't keep

ins?" said t

ns, had he been present, would have resented with extreme bitterness. "Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot told Mrs. Ble

ome to England for,

strong in that peach-garden. It didn't feel to me

open air," sa

sently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep and pathless bank. The Twi

pped short, and said

o climb

dismayed face, set his bicycle aga

help y

t of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of the bank. He relieved her of most

in very good training,

is training?" sa

aid Erebus in a fai

eing fit?" sai

run miles and miles," said Erebus raisin

hout at her,"

e her understand,"

the slang you are using. I know En

it awfully well," sai

e. They went a little deeper into the wood and

oked at its cool water, in the cool green s

he said with a faint l

"This is differ

e real open air,

" She held out her two forefingers some six inches apart. "The baroness did not like it. She said it was very

hen they're not wide enough in this hot weather," said Erebus

and jacket, you'd be cooler stil

other soft sigh of pleasure. She had quite lost her air of discomfort and boredom. Her eyes were

t that knowledge stand in the way of the gratification of their healthy curiosity. It may be they felt that in the free green wood the etiquette of courts was out of place. At any rate they did not le

s she took, the lunch she ate, the games she played, her afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets,

ns very much, for it was seldom that any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was seldom, indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her fellow creatures. She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had never had any really sympathetic playmates. The children of Cassel-Nassau were always awed and stiff in her society; their minds were

more and more of the trammeling net of etiquette in which from her rising to her going to bed she was e

Erebus heaved a great sigh, and

I'm not a princess! It

ce," said the Terror in the gloomy ton

ort lifetime. As far as memory carried her back, she had been assured, frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a German princess, a Hohenzollern pri

to be a princess! Everybo

ery kind of way. Why, you can't do any single thing you want to. There's always s

cess, with something of the wild look of one beneat

her distress; and he

"I don't suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I

quickly: "B-b-but it isn't what you have to eat tha

rtant what you have to

well think so!

man questions of German cookery and sweets. The princess, used to having information poured into her by many elderly but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies

her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of her. A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she was not

of one of the obscure kinds of German tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of

! There's some one calling. I expect they've

louded; and she said in a tone of faint dismay

too much notice of that

s my-my gouvernante,

ncess, if you do just what baronesses te

rather helplessly; she had

She mightn't think we were good for you. Some people round

g with puckered brow; and then, with a touch of appe

morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more exc

face fell woefully; and the appeal

e to come very

brightened; and her gra

me," said Erebus with the important

d not fall again; she said:

e, anyhow," s

again from the wo

It's Miss Lambart," said the

at baroness," said Erebus again

n England, of course. I like her. She tries to amuse me. But th

etty close to Miss Lambart. It wouldn't do for her to kn

said the

rd the drive from which Miss Lambart had called. As they went he adjured her to confine herself to the simple if incompl

o much nonsense fr

the drive and found her thirty yards away. The Terr

eps, and said: "Oh, here you are, Highness. We've all be

lk in the wood," said

You're looking brighter and fresher than

al open air," s