mustn't ask, my dear. I couldn't tell it to anything less than a
married woman."

"That's a pity; because I wanted to know, quick. I suppose, now, you
haven't a notion what he did with the bird?"

"Not a notion."

"I thought not. Well, I have. He's been an' gone an' given it away to
Mrs Bosenna, up at Rilla."

Mrs Bowldler turned pale and gripped the edge of the table.

"I'll bet you any money," Fancy nodded slowly.

"Ho! catch me ere I faint!" panted Mrs Bowldler.

"Why, what's the matter? She's a married woman, or has been."

"If only you'd heard--"

"Yes, it's a pity," agreed Fancy, and turned about. "Pam!"

"Yes, Miss," answered Palmerston.

"Call me 'Fancy.'"

"Yes, Miss Fancy."

She stamped her small foot. "There's no 'Miss' about it. How stupid
you are--when you see I'm in a hurry, too! Call me 'Fancy.'"

"Y-yes--Fancy," stammered Palmerston, blushing furiously, shutting his
eyes and dropping his voice to a whisper.

"That's better. . . . What does it feel like? Pleasant?"

"V-very pleasant, miss--Fancy, I mean. It--it'll come in time,"
pleaded Palmerston, still red to the eyes.

"That's right, again. Because I want you to marry me, Pammy dear."

"Well! the owdacious!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler in a kind of hysterical
titter, snatching at her bodice somewhere over the region of her heart.
Fancy paid no heed to her.

"Only we must make a runaway match of it," she went on, "for there's no
time to lose, it seems."

For answer Palmerston burst into a flood of tears.

"There now!" Mrs Bowldler of a sudden became serious. "You might have
known he's too soft to be teased. . . . Oh, be quiet, do, Palmerston!
Think of your namesake!"

A bell jangled overhead.

"Captain Hocken's bell!--and the child's face all blubbered, which he
hates to see, while as for Captain Hunken--there! it that isn't his bell
going too in the adjoining! Palmerston, pull yourself together and be a
man."

"I c-can't, missus," sobbed Palmerston. "He--he said yesterday as he'd
g-give me the sack the next time he saw my eyes red."

"Well, I must take 'em their tea myself, I suppose," said Mrs Bowldler,
who had a kind heart. "No, Palmerston, your eyes are not fit. But you
see how I'm situated?" she appealed to Fancy.

"Do you usually let them ring for tea?" Fancy asked.

"No, child. There must be something wrong with them both, or else with
my clock," answered Mrs Bowldler with a glance up at the timepie