Jack looked at me with roguish malice in her eyes. "You are not
quite well, Esther; you have got a pain in your temper, haven't you,
now?"

I don't know what I might have answered, for Jack was right, and I
was as cross as possible, only just at that moment Uncle Geoffrey put
his head in at the door, and stood beaming on us like an angel of
deliverance.

"Fee-fo-fum," for he sometimes called Jack by that charming _sobriquet_,
indeed, he was always inventing names for her, "it is too hot for
work, isn't it? I think I must give you a holiday, for I want Esther
to go out with me." Uncle Geoffrey's wishes were law, and I rose at
once; but not all my secret feelings of relief could prevent me from
indulging in a parting thrust.

"I don't think Jack deserves the holiday," I remarked, with a severe
look at the culprit; and Jack jerked her hair over her eyes this time
in some confusion.

"Hullo, Fee-fo-fum, what have you been up to? Giving Esther trouble?
Oh, fie! fie!"

"I only kicked the table," returned Jack, sullenly, "because I hate
lessons--that I do, Uncle Geoffrey--and I inked my fingers because I
liked it; and I put my elbows on the copy-book because Esther said I
wasn't to do it; and my hair got in my eyes; and William the
Conqueror had six wives, I know he had; and I told Esther she had a
pain in her temper, because she was as cross as two sticks; and I