Mr. Saunders now entered, and gave a very favourable account of the patient, saying that even the scars would probably disappear in a few weeks.  His gig had come from Raynham, and he offered to set Mr. Devereux down at the parsonage, a proposal which the latter was very glad to accept.  Emily and Jane had leisure, when they were gone, to inquire into the manner of the accident.  Phyllis answered that Maurice said that her banging the door had made the powder go off.  Jane then asked where Maurice was, and Phyllis reporting that he was in his own room, she repaired thither, and knocked twice without receiving an answer.  On her call, however, he opened the door; she saw that he had been in tears, and hastened to tell him Mr. Saunders’s opinion.  He fastened the door again as soon as she had entered.  ‘If I could have thought it!’ sighed he.  ’Fool that I was, not to lock the door!’

’Then you were not there?  Phyllis says that she did it by banging the door.  Is not that nonsense?’

’Not at all.  Did I not read to you in the Year Book of Facts about the patent signal rockets, which explode with the least vibration, even when a carriage goes by?  Now, mine was on the same principle.  I was making an experiment on the ingredients; I did not expect to succeed the first time, and so I took no precautions.  Well!  Pyrotechnics are a dangerous science!  Next time I study them it shall be at the workshop at the Old Court.’

Maurice was sincerely sorry for the consequence of his disobedience, and would have been much to be pitied had it not been for his secret satisfaction in the success of his art.  He called his sister into the schoolroom to explain how it happened.  The room was a dismal sight, blackened with smoke, and flooded with water, the table and part of the floor charred, a mass of burnt paper in the midst, and a stifling smell of fire.  A pane of glass was shattered, and Maurice ran down to the lawn to see if he could find anything there to account for it.  The next moment he returned, the powder-horn in his hand.  ’See, Jenny, how fortunate that this was driven through the window with the force of the explosion.  The whole place might have been blown to atoms with such a quantity as this.’

‘Then what was it that blew up?’ asked Jane.

’What I had put out for my rocket, about two ounces.  If this half-pound had gone there is no saying what might have happened.’

‘Now, Maurice,’ said Jane, ’I must go back to Ada, and will you run down to the parsonage with a parcel, directed to Robert, that you will find in the hall?’

This was a device to occupy Maurice, who, as Jane saw, was so restless and unhappy that she did not like to leave him, much as she was wanted elsewhere.  He went, but afraid to see his cousin, only left the parcel at the door.  As he was going back he heard a shout, and looking round saw Lord Rotherwood mounted on Cedric, his most spirited horse, galloping up the lane.  ‘Maurice!’ cried he, ’what is all this? they say the New Court is blown up, and you and half the girls killed, but I hope one part is as true as the other.’