stick on the floor. "Ha! What's this? What's the to-do? I will not be kept out of things."
"Easy on, Mama," said Nicholas, soothingly. "It's nothing but young Finch. We've found out where he is."
A feeling of breathlessness came over the room, as always happened when a piece of news had just been broken to her. How would she take it? Would there be a scene? Every eye was fixed on that hard-bitten, smouldering old face.
"Finch, eh? You've found out where Finch is!"
"He's in New York," went on Nicholas. "We have had a letter from Alayne. She's seen him."
"Ha! What's he doing there?"
"He seems to have some sort of job. I fancy Alayne got it for him."
"Oh, did she? I had always thought she was well connected." She dropped her chin to her breast. Was she thinking deeply, or was she fallen into one of her dozes? Boney hopped from his perch and began to peck at the ribbons on her cap. He pulled at the ribbons till the cap was a trifle askew.
Suddenly she raised her head and said, emphatically: "I want him. I want to see Finch. Take the bird away. He's disarranging my cap."
Ernest gingerly replaced Boney on his perch, but not until he had received a wicked peck on the wrist.
"Haramzada!" screamed Boney, flapping his wings. "Iflatoon! Chore! Chore!"
Renny observed: "I think it would be a damned good idea to leave him there for a while. He'll soon get sick of it. Teach him a lesson."
Grandmother arched her neck and turned her beaklike nose toward him. "You do, eh? You would, eh? And you his guardian! Always ready to cross my will! Unnatural grandson! Unnatural brother!" Purplish red suffused her face.
"Nonsense," said Renny. "I'm nothing of the sort."
"You are! You are! You like nothing so well as to cross people. You'd like to be a tyrant like my father. Old Renny Court. Red Renny, they used to call him
