a quarrel—bobby is willing—exit philip.

philip came back by an evening train, and when he had had something to eat he came up to the nursery to go on with the scene. we had got everything ready for him, and he worked for about half-an-hour. but he was so sleepy, with cold air and exercise, that he did not paint well, and then he got impatient, and threw it up—"till the morning."

in the morning he set to work, talking all the time about wild duck and teal, and the price of guns; but by the time he had put last night's blunders straight, the front door bell rang, and mary announced "mr. clinton."

philip was closeted in his room with his new friend till twelve o'clock. then they went out into the yard, and finally mr. clinton stayed to luncheon. but i held my peace, and made alice hold hers. mr. clinton went away in the afternoon, but philip got [195]the plate-powder and wash-leather, and occupied himself in polishing the silver fittings of his dressing-case.

"i think you might do that another time, philip," said i; "you've not been half-an-hour at the properties to-day, and you could clean your bottles and things quite as well after the theatricals."

"as it happens i just couldn't," said philip; "i've made a bargain, and bargains won't wait."

alice and i screamed in one breath, "you're not going to give away the dressing-case!"—for it had been my father's.

"i said a bargain" replied philip, rubbing harder than ever; "you can't get hold of a gun every day without paying down hard cash."

"i hate mr. clinton!" said alice.

it was a very unfortunate speech, for it declared open war; and when this is done it cannot be undone. there is no taking back those sharp sayings which the family curse hangs on the tips of our tongues.

philip and alice exchanged them pretty freely. philip called us selfish, inhospitable, and jealous. he said we grudged his enjoying himself in the holidays, when he had been working like a slave for us during the half. that we disliked his friend because he was his friend, and (not to omit the taunt of sex) that clinton was too manly a fellow to please girls, etc., [196]etc. in self-defence alice was much more out-spoken about both philip and mr. clinton than she had probably intended to be. that philip began things hotly, and that his zeal cooled before they were accomplished—that his imperiousness laid him open to flattery, and the necessity of playing first-fiddle betrayed him into second-rate friendships, which were thrown after the discarded hobbies—that mr. clinton was ill-bred, and with that vulgarity of mind which would make him rather proud than ashamed of getting the best of a bargain with his friend—these things were not the less taunts because they were true.

if the violent scenes which occur in ill-tempered families felt half as undignified and miserable as they look, surely they would be less common! i believe philip and alice would have come to blows if i had not joined with him to expel her from the room. i was not happy about it, for my sympathy was on her side of the quarrel, but she had been the one to declare war, and i could not control philip. in short, it is often not easy to keep the peace and be just too, as i should like to have said to aunt isobel, if she had been at home. but she was to be away until the 6th.

alice defeated, i took philip seriously to task. not about his friend—the subject was too sore, and alice had told him all that we thought, and rather [197]more than we thought on that score—but about the theatricals. i said if he really was tired of the business we would throw it up, and let our friends know that the proposed entertainment had fallen through, but that if he wanted it to go forward he must decide what help he would give, and then abide by his promise.

we came to terms. if i would let him have a day or two's fun with his gun, philip promised to "spurt," as he called it, at the end. i told him we would be content if he would join in a "thorough rehearsal," the afternoon before, and devote himself to the business on the day of the performance.

"real business, you know," i added, "with nobody but ourselves. nobody coming in to interrupt."

"of course," said philip; "but i'll do more than that, isobel. there's the scene—"

"we'll finish the scene," said i, "if you don't aggravate alice so that i lose her help as well as yours."

alice was very sulky, which i could hardly wonder at, and i worked alone, except for bobby, the only one with anything like a good temper among us, who roasted himself very patiently with my size-pot, and hammered bits of ivy, and of his fingers, rather neatly over the cave. but alice was impulsive and kind-hearted. when i got a bad headache, from working too long, she came round, and helped me. philip [198]was always going to do so, but as a matter of fact he went out every day with the old fowling-piece for which he had given his dressing case.

when the ice bore charles also deserted us, but alice and i worked steadily on at dresses and scenery. and bobby worked with us.

the 5th of january arrived, the day before the theatricals. philip spent the morning in cleaning his gun, and after luncheon he brought it into the nursery to "finish" with a peculiarly aggravating air.

"when shall you be ready to rehearse?" i asked.

"oh, presently," said philip, "there's plenty of time yet. it's a great nuisance," he added, "i'll never have anything to do with theatricals again. they make a perfect slave of one."

"you've not slaved much, at any rate," said charles.

"you'd better not give me any of your cheek," said philip threateningly.

"we've done without him for a week, i don't know why we shouldn't do without him to-morrow," muttered alice from the corner where she was sewing gold paper stars on to the enchanted prince's tunic.

"i wish you could," growled philip, who took the suggestion more quietly than i expected; "anybody could do the dragon, there's no acting in it!"

"i won't," said charles, "isobel gave me the en[199]chanted prince or the woolly beast, and i shall stick to my part."

"could i do the dragon?" asked bobby, releasing his hot face from the folds of an old blue cloak lined with red, in which he was rehearsing his walk as a belated wayfarer.

"certainly not," said i, "you're the bereaved father and the faithful attendant to begin with, and i hope you won't muddle them. and you're twelve travellers as well, and the thunder, remember!"

"i don't care how many i do, if only i can," said bobby, drawing his willing arm across his steaming forehead. "i should like to have a fiery tail."

"you can't devour yourself once—let alone twelve times," said i sternly. "don't be silly, bob."

it was not bob i was impatient with in reality, it was philip.

"if you really mean to desert the theatricals after all you promised, i would much rather try to do without you," said i indignantly.

"then you may!" retorted philip. "i wash my hands of it and of the whole lot of you, and of every nursery entertainment henceforward!" and he got the fragments of his gun together with much clatter. but charles had posted himself by the door to say his say, and to be ready [200]to escape when he had said it.

"you're ashamed of it, that's it," said he; "you want to sit among the grown-ups with a spy-glass, now you've got apothecary clinton's son for a friend,"—and after this brief and insulting summary of the facts, charles vanished. but philip, white with anger, was too quick for him, and at the top of the back-stairs he dealt him such a heavy blow that charles fell head-long down the first flight.

alice and i flew to the rescue. i lived in dread of philip really injuring charles some day, for his blows were becoming serious ones as he grew taller and stronger, and his self-control did not seem to wax in proportion. and charles's temper was becoming very aggressive. on this occasion, as soon as he had regained breath, and we found that no bones were broken, it was only by main force that we held him back from pursuing philip.

"i'll hit him—i'll stick to him," he sobbed in his fury, shaking his head like a terrier, and doubling his fists. but he was rather sick with the fall, and we made him lie down to recover himself, whilst alice, bobby, and i laid our heads together to plan a substitute for philip in the dragon.

when bed-time came, and philip was still absent, we became uneasy, and as i lay sleepless that night i asked myself if i had been to blame for the sulks in which he had gone off. in fits of passion philip had [201]often threatened to go away and never let us hear of him again. i knew that such things did happen, and it made me unhappy when he went off like this, although his threats had hitherto been no more than a common and rather unfair device of ill-temper.