The house soon rang with bustle--bells rang, and footsteps rapidly paced passages, and pattered up and down stairs. Andy was the nimblest at the hall-door at the first summons of the bell; and, in a livery too short in the arms and too wide in the shoulders, he bustled here and there, his anxiety to be useful only putting him in everybody's way, and ending in getting him a hearty cursing from O'Grady.
The carriage was unpacked, and letter-boxes, parcels, and portmanteaus strewed the hall. Andy was desired to carry the latter to "the gentleman's room," and, throwing the portmanteau over his shoulder, he ran upstairs. It was just after the commotion created by the arrival of the _Honourable_ Mr. Scatterbrain that Furlong returned to the house, wet and weary.
He retired to his room to change his clothes, and fancied he was now safe from further molestation, with an inward protestation that the next time the Master O'Gradys caught him in their company, they might bless themselves; when he heard a loud sound of hustling near his door, and Miss Augusta's voice audibly exclaiming, "Behave yourself, Ratty!--Gusty, let me go!"--when, as the words were uttered, the door of his room was shoved open, and Miss Augusta thrust in, and the door locked outside.
Furlong had not half his clothes on. Augusta exclaimed, "Gracious me!"--first put up her hands to her eyes, and then turned her face to the door.
Furlong hid himself in the bed-curtains, while Ratty, the vicious little rascal, with a malicious laugh, said, "Now, promise you'll not tell papa, or I'll bring him up here--and then, how will you be?"
"Ratty, you wretch!" cried Augusta, kicking at the door, "let me out!"
"I'll scream, Ratty, if you don't let me out!" cried Augusta.
"If you screech, papa will hear you, and then he'll come up and kill that fellow there."
"Oh, don't squeam, Miss O'Gwady!" said Furlong, very vivaciously, from the bed-curtains; "don't squeam, pway!"
"I'm not squeamish, sir," said Miss Augusta; "but it's dreadful to be shut up with a man who has no clothes on him. Let me out, Ratty--let me out!"
"'Pon my honour, no! Make haste! Oh, if papa knew of this!"
Scarcely had the words been uttered, when the heavy tramp and gruff voice of O'Grady resounded in the passage, and the boys scampered off in a fright, leaving the door locked.