At last they sat down, and he spoke, saying:  “I know they are not my children, but I shall not use them barbarously because of that.  You are still my wife.  I swear to you they shall never be neglected.  I will pay for their education.”

Then he began turning over the names of schools in his mind.  Eton would not do, nor Harrow, nor Winchester, nor Rugby....  But he could not tell why these schools would not do for these children of hers, he only knew that every school he thought of was impossible, but surely one could be found.  So turning over the names of schools he sat for a long while holding his dear wife’s hand, till at length, still weeping, she got up and went away and then slowly he awoke.

But even when he had opened his eyes and looked about him he was thinking of schools, saying to himself that he must send them to a private academy, or even at the worst engage a tutor.  “Why, yes,” he said to himself, putting one foot out of bed, “that is what it must be, a tutor, though even then there will be a difficulty at first.”

At those words he wondered what difficulty there would be and recollected that they were not ordinary children.  No, they were foxes—­mere foxes.  When poor Mr. Tebrick had remembered this he was, as it were, dazed or stunned by the fact, and for a long time he could understand nothing, but at last burst into a flood of tears compassionating them and himself too.  The awfulness of the fact itself, that his dear wife should have foxes instead of children, filled him with an agony of pity, and, at length, when he recollected the cause of their being foxes, that is that his wife was a fox also, his tears broke out anew, and he could bear it no longer but began calling out in his anguish, and beat his head once or twice against the wall, and then cast himself down on his bed again and wept and wept, sometimes tearing the sheets asunder with his teeth.

The whole of that day, for he was not to go to the earth till evening, he went about sorrowfully, torn by true pity for his poor vixen and her children.

At last when the time came he went again up to the earth, which he found deserted, but hearing his voice, out came Esther.  But though he called the others by their names there was no answer, and something in the way the cub greeted him made him fancy she was indeed alone.  She was truly rejoiced to see him, and scrambled up into his arms, and thence to his shoulder, kissing him, which was unusual in her (though natural enough in her sister Angelica).  He sat down a little way from the earth fondling her, and fed her with some fish he had brought for her mother, which she ate so ravenously that he concluded she must have been short of food that day and probably alone for some time.

At last while he was sitting there Esther pricked up her ears, started up, and presently Mr. Tebrick saw his vixen come towards them.  She greeted him very affectionately but it was plain had not much time to spare, for she soon started back whence she had come with Esther at her side.  When they had gone about a rod the cub hung back and kept stopping and looking back to the earth, and at last turned and ran back home.  But her mother was not to be fobbed off so, for she quickly overtook her child and gripping her by the scruff began to drag her along with her.