Try as hard as one may, one cannot bath and dress in less than five minutes.  Kitty declared she could have done it in that time, if Dan had not had possession of the bathroom, and Betty had not used her bath-towel and left it so wet that no one else could possibly use it.

“But I couldn’t use my own,” protested Betty, when the charge was brought against her, “for I hadn’t one, and of course I had to use something.”

When the discussion had proceeded for some time, Dr. Trenire looked up from his paper with a half-resigned air.  “What is the matter, children?  Haven’t we bath-towels enough to go round?  Kitty, you should tell me when things are needed.  But never mind; your aunt will see to everything of that sort now.”

“I don’t think she will,” murmured Betty knowingly, but her father did not hear her.  Kitty felt too dismayed to speak; there was something so final in her father’s tone, it made the coming of the dreaded aunt seem quite inevitable.

“What are you children going to do to-day?” he went on kindly.  “It is a glorious morning after the storm.  You ought to be out as much as possible, all of you.  You should start as soon as you have finished your work with Miss Pooley.”

Miss Pooley was the governess who came daily from ten till one to instruct them.  At least she instructed them as often as she had the opportunity, but it very frequently happened that when she arrived she was told that the children had gone out for the day, or even oftener a little note to the same effect reached her, adding that as they would be engaged all day they wished to save her the trouble of coming for nothing.

This morning they had intended to do the same thing.  Kitty was to write the note, and Tony to deliver it, but their father’s remark, and his look, touched their consciences.  Dan, too, for some reason or another, was against it; he said he thought that after all it was a bit sneaky and underhand, and he wasn’t going to have any more of it.  Betty felt the foundations of her world shake, and life bristled with new difficulties; but Dan had said it, so no one questioned.  After Dan had put things in that light, Kitty suddenly realized that their conduct in the matter had been neither honourable nor honest.

“We will have our lessons and leave directly after,” she planned cheerfully.  “I will ask Fanny to let us have some food to take with us for our dinner, and then we will go to the farm for tea, and come home in time for supper.  Won’t it be jolly!  And we will have our dinner down by the river—­by that dear little silvery, sandy beach, you know.”

“It sounds fine,” said their father, returning to the room just in time to hear the arrangements.  “I wish I could go too.”

“I wish you could,” cried Kitty.  “Wouldn’t it be fun to see father exploring the woods, and catching beetles and minnows, and paddling in the river, and—­daddy, can’t you come, just this once?”