"Eustace!"
Mrs. Hignett gasped, hand on heart.
"Eustace!" For the first time Mrs. Hignett seemed to become aware that it was a changed face that confronted hers. "Good gracious! How stout you've grown!"
"It's mumps."
"Mumps!"
"Yes, I've got mumps."
Mrs. Hignett's mind was too fully occupied with other matters to allow her to dwell on this subject.
"Eustace, there are men in the house!"
This fact was just what Eustace had been wondering how to break to her.
"I know," he said uneasily.
"You know!" Mrs. Hignett stared. "Did you hear them?"
"Hear them?" said Eustace, puzzled.
"The drawing-room window was left open, and there are two burglars in the hall!"
"Oh, I say, no! That's rather rotten!" said Eustace.
"I saw them and heard them! I—oh!" Mrs. Hignett's sentence trailed off in
