‘Oh!  I did not say that I had done with everybody,’ said Anne; ’but, perhaps, whatever I might think, I might not have presumed—­’

‘O Rupert!’ said Lady Merton,

’Could some fay the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us—­’

‘Mamma’s beloved Burn’s Justice again,’ interrupted Rupert.

‘No, no, we do not mean to let our mouths be stopped,’ said Lady Merton; ‘such a challenge must be answered.’

‘Shew him no mercy, Anne,’ said Sir Edward; ‘he likes pepper.’

‘Pray, Rupert,’ said Anne, ’what would you have been without self-control, if, possessing such a quantity of it, you still allowed so much spirit of mischief to domineer over you, that you frightened Dora out of her wits about Winifred, and tormented Helen all the way to Whistlefar, and worst of all, that you could not help writing that wicked poem, and then pretending that it was mine; why, it was an outrage upon us all, it would have been bad enough if the name had belonged to no one, but when you knew that he was a real man—­’

’And that Miss Hazleby wrote his name on purpose that something of the kind might be done,’ said Rupert; ’I gratified her beyond measure, and then was so kind and disinterested as to give you the credit of it, if you would have accepted it.  You may be sure that she will shew the poem to her hero, and tell him what a charming fellow that young Rupert Merton is.’

‘Now just listen, Mamma,’ said Anne; ’I begged of Mr. Rupert not to write anything about Fido in the Conglomeration on Saturday evening; and because I did so, he would write nothing on his own account, but pretending to read my verses, he brings out a horrible composition about a certain Mr. Francis Hollis, who, Miss Hazelby had been telling us, had been the means of her going to an officers’ ball, at Hull, and whom she had danced with—­’

‘Capital, capital!’ cried Rupert; ’I never heard all this; I did not know how good my poem was, I knew the truth by intuition.’

‘But having heard this made it all the worse for me,’ said Anne; ’and Mamma, this dreadful doggerel—­’

‘Anne, I declare—­’ cried Rupert.

‘And, Mamma, this dreadful doggerel,’ proceeded Anne, ’proposed to send Fido’s heart to this Mr. Hollis, and so put him in raptures with a gift from Miss Hazleby, and fill his mind with visions of a surrogate, and a wedding tour to Harrogate.  Now was it not the most impertinent ungentlemanlike thing you ever heard of?’

‘How can you talk such nonsense, Anne?’ said Rupert; ’do you think I should have written it, if I had not known it would please her?’

’I believe you would not have dared to behave in such a manner to Lizzie, or to anyone else who knew what was due to her,’ said Anne; ’if Miss Hazleby is vain and vulgar, she is still a woman, and ought to be respected as such.’

Rupert laughed rather provokingly.  ‘It is just as I say,’ said Anne; ‘now is it not, Mamma?’