“No trouble,” said Eustace.  “Harold always wants to work off his steam.”

“What, it was he?” said Viola.

“Yes, of course; he always does those things,” said Eustace, speaking with a tone of proprietorship, as if Harold had been a splendid self-acting steam-engine.  “I am very glad to have gratified you, Miss Tracy—­”

“Only he did, and not you,” said Viola, boldly, luckily without being heard by her mother, while Eustace murmured out, rather bewildered, “It is all the same.”

Viola evidently did not think so when Harold came in with beads of wet fringing his whiskers, though he had divested himself of the chief evidences of the rivers of muddy lane through which he had walked to Arked House, full four miles off.

Viola’s profuse thanks were crossed by Lady Diana’s curt apologies; and as poor Piggy, who had genuinely overslept himself, entered with his apologies—­poor fellow—­in a voice very much as if he was trying to say “Grumph, grumph,” while he could only say “Wee, wee,” they were received solemnly by his uncle with, “The antipodes are a rebuke to you, Pigou.  I am afraid the young men of this hemisphere have no disposition to emulate either such chivalrous attentions or exertions as have been Mr. Harold Alison’s excuse.”

When so much was said about it, Harold probably wished he had let the whole matter alone, and was thankful to be allowed to sit down in peace to his well-earned breakfast, which was finished before Dermot lounged in—­not waited for by his uncle, who offered an exhibition of his model-farm-buildings, machines, cattle, &c.  Fain would Viola and I have gone in the train of the gentlemen, but the weather, though not bad enough to daunt a tolerably hardy man, was too damp for me, and we had to sit down to our work in the drawing-room, while Piggy, always happier without his great-uncle, meandered about until Lady Diana ordered off Viola to play at billiards with him, but kept me, for, as I perceived, the awful moment was come, and the only consolation was that it might be an opportunity of pleading Harold’s cause.

With great censure of the Stympsons’ ill-breeding and discourtesy to her brother (which seemed to affect her far more than the direct injury to Harold), and strong disclaimers of belief in them, still my mother’s old friend must inquire into the character of these young men and my position with regard to them.  If she had been tender instead of inquisitorial, I should have answered far more freely, and most likely the air of defiance and defence into which she nettled me had a partisan look; but it was impossible not to remember that Miss Woolmer had always said that, however she might censure the scandal of the Stympsons, they only required to dish it up with sauce piquant to make her enjoy it heartily.