“Your father says he cannot allow such conduct to go unpunished, especially as you have all been unusually tiresome lately; therefore:  you are all—­”

“To be taken away and hanged by the neck until we are dead!”

“Be quiet, Judy.  I have tried my best to beg you off, but it only makes him more vexed.  He says you are the untidiest, most unruly lot of children in Sydney, and he will punish you each time you do anything, and—­”

“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

“Oh, shut up, Judy!  Can’t you let us hear?” Pip put his hand over her mouth and held her by the hair while Esther told the news.

“None of you are to go to the pantomime.  The seats were taken for Thursday night, and now, you very foolish children, you will all have to stay at home.”

There was a perfect howl of dismay for a minute or two.  They had all been looking forward to this treat for nearly a month, and the disappointment was a really bitter one to them all.

“Oh, I say, Esther, that’s too bad, really!  All the fellows at school have been.”  Pip’s handsome face flushed angrily.  “And for such a little thing, too!”

“Just because you had roast fowl for dinner,” said Judy, in a half-choked voice.  “Oh, Esther, why couldn’t you have had cow, or horse, or hippopotamus—­anything but roast fowl?”

“Couldn’t you get round him, Esther?” Meg looked anxiously at her.

“Dear Esther, do!”

“Oh, you sweet, beautiful Essie, do try!”

They clung round her eagerly.  Baby flung her arms round her neck and nearly choked her; Nell stroked her cheek; Pip patted her back, and besought her to “be a good fellow”; Bunty buried his nose in her back hair and wept a silent tear; Meg clasped her hand in an access of unhappiness; the General gave a series of delighted squeaks; and Judy in her wretchedness smacked him for his pains.

Esther would do her best, beg as she had never done before, coax, beseech, wheedle, threaten; and they let her go at last with that assurance.

“Only I’d advise you all to be preternaturally good and quiet all day,” she said, looking back from the doorway.  “That would have most effect with him, and he is going to be at home all day.”

Good!  It was absolutely painful to witness the virtue of those children for the rest of the day.

It was holiday-time, and Miss Marsh was away, but not once did the sound of quarrelling, or laughing, or crying fly down to the lower regions.

“‘Citizens of Rome, the eyes of the world are upon you!’” Judy had said solemnly, and all had promised so to conduct themselves that their father’s heart could not fail to be melted.

Pip put on his school jacket, brushed his hair, took a pile of school books, and proceeded to the study where his father was writing letters, and where he was allowed to do his home-lessons.