he peered into Helen's face and squeaked, "And what
the devil is there to do?"

"Don't use words like that."

"Wow! Wow! This is the devil's St. Helena, I imagine. There's nothing to
be done in it. I believe she has eyes all round her head."

"He's a gentleman always, in pictures."

"Are you really stupid?"

"I think so."

"I was talking about Notya."

"Oh."

"And I believe she can see with her ears and hear with her eyes.
Helen--Helen, you don't think she gets up sometimes in the night, and
prowls about, do you?"

"I should hear her."

"Oh. Are you sure?"

"I sleep so lightly. The other night--"

"Yes?"

"I was waked by a sheep coughing outside the garden."

Miriam burst out laughing. "Did you think it was Zebedee?" She laughed a
great deal more than was necessary. "Now she's putting on her
never-smiled-again expression! Will he be back before I go away?"

Helen looked at her dumbly. She heard the garden gate shutting behind
John and Zebedee, Rupert and Miriam, with a clang which seemed to forbid
return, and her dread of Zebedee's going became sharper, though beneath
her dread there lay the courage she had promised him.

"And there will be the dog," she found herself saying aloud.

The animal, when he arrived, leapt from the dog-cart in which he had
been unwillingly conveyed and proved to be an Airedale, guaranteed to be
a perfect watch-dog and suspicious of all strangers.

Proudly, Zebedee delivered himself of these recommendations.

"He's trained, thoroughly trained to bite. And he's enormously strong.
Just look at his neck! Look at his teeth--get through anything."

Helen was kneeling to the dog and asking, "Are you sure he'll bite
people? He seems to like me very much."

"I've been telling him about you. My precious child, you can't have a
dog who leaps at people unprovoked. He'd be a public danger. You must
say 'Rats!' or something like that when you want him to attack."

"Well--I love him," she said.

"And I've something else for you."

"Oh, no!"

"Shut your eyes--"

"And open my mouth?"

"No, give me your hand. There! Will you wear that for me?"

"Oh! Oh! It's the loveliest thing I've ever seen in my life! Much! Oh,
it's perfect. It's so white."

"Tell me I'm rather a success today."

"You're one all the time. Did you have it made for me?"

"D'you think I'd get you something out of a shop window? I made it up.
And there's another thing--"

"But you won't have any money