“Well, then, if you will make merry-andrews of yourselves, and your fathers and mothers like to let you, I can’t help it—­that’s all I have to say,” said Mrs. Langford, walking out of the room; while Fred entered from the other side a moment after.  “Victory, victory, my dear Fred!” cried Beatrice, darting to meet him in an ecstasy.  “I have prevailed:  you find me in the hour of victory.  The Assassin for ever! announced for Monday night, before a select audience!”

“Well, you are an irresistible Queen Bee,” said Fred; “why Alex has just been telling me ever so much that his mother told him about grandmamma’s dislike to it.  I thought the whole concern a gone ’coon, as they say in America.”

“I got grandpapa first,” said Beatrice, “and then I persuaded her; she told me it would lead to all sorts of mischief, and gave me a long lecture which had nothing to do with it.  But I found out at last that the chief points which alarmed her were poor Shakespeare and the confusion in the study; so by giving up those two I gained everything.”

“You don’t mean that you gave up bully Bottom?”

“Yes, I do; but you need not resign your asses’ ears.  You shall wear them in the character of King Midas.”

“I think,” said the ungrateful Fred, “that you might as well have given it all up together as Bottom.”

“No, no; just think what capabilities there are in Midas.  We will decidedly make him King of California, and I’ll be the priestess of Apollo; there is an old three-legged epergne-stand that will make a most excellent tripod.  And only think of the whispering into the reeds, ‘King Midas has the ears of an ass.’  I would have made more of a fight for Bottom, if that had not come into my head.”

“But you will have nothing to do.”

“That helped to conciliate.  I promised we girls should appear very little, and for the sake of effect, I had rather Henrietta broke on the world in all her beauty at the end.  I do look forward to seeing her as Queen Eleanor; she will look so regal.”

Fred smiled, for he delighted in his sister’s praises.  “You are a wondrous damsel, busy one,” said he, “to be content to play second fiddle.”

“Second fiddle!  As if I were not the great moving spring!  Trust me, you would never write yourself down an ass but for the Queen Bee.  How shall we ever get your ears from Allonfield?  Saturday night, and only till Monday evening to do everything in!”

“Oh, you will do it,” said Fred.  “I wonder what you and Henrietta cannot do between you!  Oh, there is Uncle Geoffrey come in,” he exclaimed, as he heard the front door open.

“And I must go and dress,” said Beatrice, seized with a sudden haste, which did not speak well for the state of her conscience.

Uncle Geoffrey was in the hall, taking off his mud-bespattered gaiters.  “So you are entered with the vermin, Fred,” called he, as the two came out of the drawing-room.