Neither contributed much to her knowledge of her offspring's mental or physical well-being. An anxious question addressed to Master Adrian on the subject of an unidentified pain which might, or might not, turn out to be a grumbling appendix had been left unanswered, together with an urgent command to Master Silas to Find out from Mr. Kentmere when half-term will be so that Daddy and I can make arrangements to come down. Both young gentlemen would have been much distressed by a failure on the part of their parents to put in an appearance at this function, but thus early in the term their minds were preoccupied with more pressing matters, chief amongst which was the need to replace the bath sponge of one Bolton-Bagby, "which', wrote Master Adrian Kane, "got chucked out of the window of Big Dorm."

Mr. James Kane, regaled with this passage, grinned, and said: "Young devil! What's Silas got to say?"

Mrs. James Kane, in loving accents, read aloud the letter from her first-born. It opened with a pious hope that his parents were enjoying good health; adjured her to tell Daddy that "we had a match against St Stephen's, we won 15-nil, they were punk'; requested the instant despatch of an envelope containing such examples of the stamp engraver's art as were known to him as "my swops'; and informed his mother that owing to the thievish habits of some person or persons unknown a new pair of fivesgloves was urgently required. A disarming bracket added the words: if you can manage it, and a postscript conveyed kindly words of encouragement to his sister Susan, and his infant-brother William.

"So they're all right!" said Mrs. Kane, restoring both these interesting communications to their envelopes.