For my sister the ordeal had been severe, and for the thirty hours following the robbery she had kept her bed.  Berry had contracted a slight cold, and I was not one penny the worse.  Jill was overcome to learn what she had missed, and the reflection that she had mercifully slept upstairs, while such a drama was being enacted upon the ground floor, rendered her inconsolable.  Jonah was summoned by telegram, and came pelting from Somerset, to be regaled with a picturesque account of the outrage, the more purple features of which he at first regarded as embroidery, and for some time flatly refused to believe.  As was to be expected, Nobby paid for his treachery with an attack of biliousness, the closing stages of which were terrible to behold.  At one time it seemed as if no constitution could survive such an upheaval; but, although the final convulsion left him subdued and listless, he was as right as ever upon the following morning.

The next Sunday we registered what was to be our last attendance of Church Parade for at least three months.

By common consent we had that morning agreed altogether to eschew the subject of crime.  Ever since it had happened we had discussed the great adventure so unceasingly that, as Berry had remarked at breakfast, it was more than likely that, unless we were to take an immediate and firm line with ourselves, we should presently get Grand Larceny on the brain, and run into some danger of qualifying, not only for admission to Broadmoor, but for detention in that institution till His Majesty’s pleasure should be known.  For the first hour or two which followed our resolution we either were silent or discussed other comparatively uninteresting matters in a preoccupied way; but gradually lack of ventilation began to tell, and the consideration of the robbery grew less absorbent.

As we entered the Park at Stanhope Gate—­

“Boy, aren’t you glad Adele’s coming?” said Jill.

I nodded abstractedly.

“Rather.”

“You never said so the other night.”

“Didn’t I?”

“I suppose, if she comes to Southampton, you’ll go to meet her.  May I come with you?”

“Good heavens, yes.  Why shouldn’t you?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  I thought, perhaps, you’d rather....”

I whistled to Nobby, whose disregard of traffic was occasionally conducive to heart failure.  As he came cantering up—­

“Adele isn’t my property,” I said.

“I know, but....”

“But what?”

“I’ve never seen Nobby look so clean,” said Jill, with a daring irrelevance that took my breath away.

“I observe,” said I, “that you are growing up.  Your adolescence is at hand.  You are fast emerging from the chrysalis of girlish innocence, eager to show yourself a pert and scheming butterfly.”  My cousin regarded me with feigned bewilderment.  “Yes, you’ve got the baby stare all right, but you must learn to control that little red mouth.  Watch Daphne.”