ing?" I asked in a whisper.

"Grumping!" Mr. Dick answered. He went over and stood looking down at
her with his hands in his pockets and his hair ruffled as if he'd been
running his fingers through it. She never moved a shoulder.

"Dorothy," he said. "Here's Minnie."

She pretended not to hear.

"Dorothy!" he repeated. "I wish you wouldn't be such a g--Confound it,
Dolly, be reasonable. Do you want to make me look like a fool?"

She turned her face enough to uncover one eye.

"It wouldn't be difficult," she answered, staring at him with the one
eye. It was red from crying.

"Now listen, Dolly." He got down on one knee beside the cot and tried to
take her hand, but she jerked it away. "I've tried wearing my hair that
way, and it--it isn't becoming, to say the least. I don't mind having it
wet and brushed back in a pompadour, if you insist, but I certainly do
balk at the ribbon."

"You've only got to wear the ribbon an hour or so, until it dries." She
brought her hand forward an inch or so and he took it and kissed it. It
should have been slapped.

"I'll tell you what I'll do," he said. "You can fix it any way you
please, when it's too late for old Sam or Pierce to drop in, and I'll
wear the confounded ribbon all night. Won't that do?"

But she had seen the note and sat up and held out her hand for it. She
was wearing one of Miss Patty's dresses and it hung on her--not that
Miss Patty was large, but she had a beautiful figure, and Mrs. Dicky, of
course, was still growing and not properly filled out.

"Dick!" she said suddenly, "what do you think? Oskar is here! Pat's in
the wildest excitement. He's in town, and Aunt Honoria has telephoned
to know what to do! Listen: he is incog., of course, and registered as
Oskar von Inwald. He did an awfully clever thing--came in through Canada
while the papers thought he was in St. Moritz."

"For heaven's sake," replied Mr. Dick, "tell her not to ask him here. I
shouldn't know how to talk to him."

"He speaks lovely English," declared Mrs. Dick, still reading.

"I know all that," he said, walking around nervously, "but if he's going
to be my brother-in-law, I suppose I don't get down on my knees and
knock my head on the floor. What do I say to him? Your Highness? Oh,
I've known a lord or two, but that's different. You call them anything
you like and lend them money."

"I dare say you can with Oskar, too." Mrs. Dicky put the note down and
sighed. "Well, he's coming. Pa