at the clock.

"You are fifteen minutes late," she snapped, and bit the darning
thread--not with rage, but because she had forgotten her scissors.

"I'm sorry, but you see--"

"Whom have you there?"

The Prince cowered. She looked quite like his grandfather when his
tutor's reports had been unfavorable.

"A friend of mine," said Bobby, not a whit daunted.

The governess put down the stocking and rose. In so doing, she caught
her first real glimpse of Ferdinand William Otto, and she staggered
back.

"Holy Saints!" she said, and went white. Then she stared at the boy, and
her color came back. "For a moment," she muttered "--but no. He is not
so tall, nor has he the manner. Yes, he is much smaller!"

Which proves that, whether it wears it or not, royalty is always
measured to the top of a crown.

In the next room Bobby's mother was arranging candles on a birthday
cake in the center of the table. Pepy had iced the cake herself, and
had forgotten one of the "b's" in "Bobby" so that the cake really read:
"Boby--XII."

However, it looked delicious, and inside had been baked a tiny black
china doll and a new American penny, with Abraham Lincoln's head on it.
The penny was for good fortune, but the doll was a joke of Pepy's, Bobby
being aggressively masculine.

Bobby, having passed the outpost, carried the rest of the situation by
assault. He rushed into the dining-room and kissed his mother, with one
eye on the cake.

"Mother, here's company to supper! Oh, look at the cake! B-O-B-Y'!
Mother! That's awful!"

Mrs. Thorpe looked at the cake. "Poor Pepy," she said. "Suppose she had
made it 'Booby'?" Then she saw Ferdinand William Otto, and went over,
somewhat puzzled, with her hand out. "I am very glad Bobby brought you,"
she said. "He has so few little friends--"

Then she stopped, for the Prince had brought his heels together sharply,
and, bending over her hand, had kissed it, exactly as he kissed his Aunt
Annunciata's when he went to have tea with her. Mrs. Thorpe was fairly
startled, not at the kiss, but at the grace with which the tribute was
rendered.

Then she looked down, and it restored her composure to find that
Ferdinand William Otto, too, had turned eyes toward the cake. He was,
after all, only a hungry small boy. With quick tenderness she stooped
and kissed him gravely on the forehead. Caresses were strange to
Ferdinand William Otto. His warm little heart leaped and pounded. At
that moment, he wou