pected had happened. They had known it was coming; would have
been bitterly disappointed if it had failed, nevertheless they writhed
and capered as though overcome with amazement.

"P-ixie, Pixie, Who--Are--You--Now?"

"I'm a wild buffalo of the plains!" answered Pixie unexpectedly, and as
a wild buffalo she comported herself for the next half-hour, ambling on
hands and knees round the room, while the children wreathed her neck
with impromptu garlands made of wools from their mother's work-basket,
and made votive offerings of sofa cushions, footstools, and india-rubber
toys.

In the midst of the uproar Bridgie jumped from her seat and flew to the
door, her ears sharp as ever to hear the click of her husband's
latch-key. The greeting in the narrow hall was delightfully lover-like
for a married couple of six years' standing, and they entered the
drawing-room arm-in-arm, smiling with a contentment charming to witness.
Captain Victor was satisfied that no one in the world possessed such an
altogether delightful specimen of womanhood as his "bride." She was so
sweet, so good, so unselfish, and in addition to these sterling
qualities, she was so cheerful, so spontaneous, so unexpected, that it
was impossible for life to grow dull and monotonous while she was at the
head of the household.

He acknowledged tenderly, and with a shrug of the shoulders to express
resignation, that she _might_ have been a cleverer housekeeper and just
a thought more economical in expenditure! but considering her
happy-go-lucky upbringing under the most thriftless of fathers, the
darling really deserved more praise for what she accomplished than blame
for what was left undone.

Bridgie, on the contrary, considered that Dick worried his head
ridiculously about ways and means. Not for the world and all that it
contained would she have accused him of being _mean_: she merely
shrugged _her_ shoulders and reminded herself that he was English, poor
thing! English people had a preference for seeing money visibly in
their purses before they spent it, while she herself had been brought up
in a cheerful confidence that it would "turn up" somehow to pay the
bills which had been incurred in faith.

Captain Victor displayed not the faintest astonishment at discovering
his sister-in-law on all fours, nor did he appear overcome to be
introduced to her as a buffalo of the plains. He smiled at her almost
as tenderly as at his own babies, and said--

"