"Oh, Aunt Patricia, I'm _so_ sorry. It was an accident. I didn't
_mean_ to do it, truly I didn't!"

[Illustration: "SHE FAIRLY STIFFENED WITH HORROR."]

There's no use harrowing up your feelings, Ring-tail, repeating all
that was said. Miss Patricia simply couldn't believe that the shot
could have struck dead centre unless the eye had been deliberately
aimed at, and she thought something was wrong with a boy who would
even take aim at his great-great-grandfather's eyeball.

Stuart was sent from the room in disgrace to report to his father, and
the last I saw of Miss Patricia that day, she was looking up at the
portrait, and saying, with a mournful shake of her gray curls: "How
can they do such things? I must confess that I don't understand
boys!"




CHAPTER IV.

THE TALE THE MIRROR-MONKEY HEARD ON THURSDAY.


The day that Phil was able to go back to school was an unlucky one for
me. It was so dolefully quiet everywhere. After he had gone, I slipped
down-stairs on the banister, but the blinds were drawn in the parlour
and dining-room, and it was so still that the only sound to be heard
was the slow ticking of the great clock in the hall. When it gave a