alogue say about cooks,
I'd like to know?"

"First, thou shalt not steal. You propose to steal this woman. Second,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's maid-servant. How many times does
that make?" I asked.

"Dear me, Bunny," said Henriette, "but you _are_ a little tuppenny
Puritan, aren't you? Anybody'd know you were the son of a clergyman!
Well, let me tell you, I sha'n't steal the woman, and I sha'n't covet
her. I'm just going to get her, that's all."

It was two weeks later that Norah Sullivan left the employ of Mrs.
Innitt and was installed in our kitchen; and, strange to relate, she
came as a matter of charity on Henriette's part--having been discharged
by Mrs. Innitt.

The Friday before Norah's arrival Henriette requested me to get her a
rusty nail, a piece of gravel from the drive, two hair-pins, and a steel
nut from the automobile.

"What on earth--" I began, but she shut me off with an imperious
gesture.

"Do as I tell you," she commanded. "You are not in on this venture." And
then apparently she relented. "But I'm willing to tell you just one
thing, Bunny"--here her eyes began to twinkle joyously--"I'm going to
Mrs. Innitt's to dinner to-morrow night--so look out for Norah by
Monday."

I turned sulkily away.

"You know how I feel on that subject," said I. "This business of going
into another person's house as a guest and inducing their servants to
leave is an infraction of the laws of hospitality. How would you like it
if Mrs. Gaster stole me away from you?"

Henriette's answer was a puzzling smile. "You are free to better your
condition, Bunny," she said. "But I am not going to rob Mrs. Innitt, as
I told you once before. She will discharge Norah and I will take her,
that's all; so do be a good boy and bring me the nail and gravel and the
hair-pins and the automobile nut."

I secured the desired articles for my mistress, and the next evening she
went to Mrs. Innitt's little dinner to Miss Gullet and her fiance, Lord
Dullpate, eldest son of the Duke of Lackshingles, who had come over to
America to avoid the scrutiny of the Bankruptcy Court, taking the absurd
objects with her. Upon her return at 2 A.M. she was radiant and
triumphant.

"I won out, Bunny--I won out!" she cried.

"How?" I inquired.

"Mrs. Innitt has discharged Norah, though I begged her not to," she
fairly sang.

"On what grounds?"

"Several," said Henriette, unfastening her glove. "To begin with, there
was a rusty nail in my