cut only he had father's overcoat on
(one of father's old coats, we got it out of the camphor chest)." She
ceased, for Jetty, in the midst of the confession, hopped down to take a
valetudinarian peck at his yellow seeds.

"Now," murmured Bella, "the question is, _shall_ I tell mother on an
exciting day like this when she is worried and nervous, and, if I do
tell her, wouldn't it be carrying tales on poor little Gardiner?"

Jetty, by his food cup, disheartened and discouraged and apparently in a
profound melancholy, depressed Bella; she left him, turned and fled.

Bella picked a forbidden way up the freshly oiled stairs and joined her
little brother. There she listened to tales, danced on tiptoe to peer
through the stair rails, and hung with Gardiner over the balustrade and
watched and listened. The children flew to the window to see the cabs
and carriages drive up, fascinated by the clicking of the doors, finding
magic in the awning and the carpeting that stretched down the stoop to
the curb; found music in the voices below in the hallway as the guests
arrived. Bella could hardly eat the flat and unpalatable supper prepared
for her on the tray, and, finally, she seized her little brother.

"Come, let's go down and see the party, Gardiner."

She dragged him after her, half-reluctant and wholly timid. On the
middle of the stairway she paused. The house below was transformed, hot
and perfumed with flowers, the very atmosphere was strange. Along the
balustrade, their hands touched smilax garlands. The blaze of light
dazzled them, the sweet odours, the gaiety and the spirit of cheer and
life and good-fellowship came up on fragrant wings. The little brother
and sister stood entranced. The sound of laughter and men's agreeable
voices came soaring in, the gaiety of guests at a feast, and, over all
rose a sound most heavenly, a low, thrilling, thrilling sound.

Jetty was singing.

The children knew the blackbird's idyl well, but it was different this
night. They heard the first notes rise softly, half stifled in his
throat, where Jetty caressed his tune, soothed it, crooned with it, and
then, preluded by a burst all his own of a few adorable silver notes,
the trained melody came forth.

"Oh, _Gardiner_," breathed the little girl, "hear Jetty. Isn't it
perfectly beautiful?"

They stepped softly on downstairs, hand in hand, into the lower rooms,
over to the dining-room where the thick red curtains hung before the
doorway