"We have very satisfactorily dealt with Mr Greenwood and Mr Burrows.

We have settled affairs with them very satisfactorily." The old lady rose from her chair and came very quickly towards us.
"What did you say to them?
How did you persuade them ?" she cried.
"We persuaded them, my dear madam," said Rupert, laughing, "by knocking them down and tying them up.

But what is the matter ?" To the surprise of every one the old lady walked slowly back to her seat by the window.
"Do I understand," she said, with the air of a person about to begin knitting, "that you have knocked down Mr Burrows and tied him up ?" "We have," said Rupert proudly; "we have resisted their oppression and conquered it." "Oh, thanks," answered the old lady, and sat down by the window.
A considerable pause followed.
"The road is quite clear for you, madam," said Rupert pleasantly.
The old lady rose, cocking her black eyebrows and her silver crest at us for an instant.
"But what about Greenwood and Burrows ?" she said.

"What did I understand you to say had become of them ?" "They are lying on the floor upstairs," said Rupert, chuckling.

"Tied hand and foot." "Well, that settles it," said the old lady, coming with a kind of bang into her seat again, "I must stop where I am." Rupert looked bewildered.
"Stop where you are ?" he said.