Good morning--good morning." With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into the grocer's shop.
The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning.

Then Erebus said: "Silly old idiot!" The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning.

At last he broke out: "This won't do! We can't have these old idiots gossiping about Mum.
And it's a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so much more cheerful for her." "But you don't think there's anything in what the old cat said?
It would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!" cried Erebus in a panic.
The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought.
"_Do_ you think there's anything in it ?" cried Erebus.
"I dare say there is.

Sir James is always about with Mum; and he's always very civil to us--people aren't generally," said the Terror.
"Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!" cried Erebus.
"Why must we ?" "It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!" cried Erebus fiercely.
"It isn't altogether what we like--there's Mum," said the Terror.

"She does have a rotten time of it--always being hard up and never going anywhere.