"'No, thank you. I engaged to teach Miss Coventry, not to amuse Mr.Coventry' was all the answer she got.

"'You amuse Ned, why not Gerald? Are you afraid of him?' asked Bella.

"Miss Muir laughed, such a scornful laugh, and exclaimed, in thatpeculiar tone of hers, 'I cannot fancy anyone being _afraid_ of yourelder brother.'

"'I am, fairly occasionally, and so would you be, if you ever saw him mad,' AndBella looked as if I'd beaten her.

"'Does he ever wake up enough to be angry?' asked that girl, with an airof surprise. Here Ned broke into a fit of laughter, and they are at itnow, I fancy, by the sound."