ch other. She seized him by the lapels of
his coat now, and shook him to attention, while he, looking down upon
her with the hardly yet familiar pride of possession in his boyish
eyes, swayed his big frame in her grasp, flatteringly yielding to her
small efforts.

"Are you going to attend, sir? Well, then--There was once a young
man----"

"Who met a small vixen called Nell, and she fell in love with him and
made him marry her."

"Ah, now, Ted, do listen!--A young man, and his mother told him never
to walk under a ladder."

"And he did, naughty youth, and a bricklayer fell on him, and he died?"

She pleaded with him. "Seriously, Ted; no nonsense!" So he grasped her
by the elbows and looked gravely in her face.

"It was mother's cousin Harold--really and truly--not a make-up."

"Hurry up, darling. I'm swallowing every word, and it's most awfully
interesting."

"And he didn't believe that kind of thing--just like you, you
know--ladders, and crows, and petticoats, and things. And he was going
out to the West Indies to an awfully good appointment--hundreds a year!
And his mother went for a walk with him on the last day. And they were
building a row of houses----"

"Cousin Harold and his mother?"

"No. _You_ know. And his mother said, 'Don't go under the ladder,
dear'--and he did."

"Naughty boy! Naughty Cousin Harold!"

"You're laughing! Very well, just wait. To tease her, he would. 'Now,
look here,' he said, 'every ladder I come to I mean to go under
_twice_.' And he did. And his mother couldn't stop him, and she cried.
And--that's all----"

"All? But where's the point?"

"I didn't say there was a point. You know about mother's Cousin
Harold."

"I'm hanged if I do."

"He never, never came back."

"Goodness!"

"He never even got there."

"Break it gently, Nell."

"The ship he went in sank, and no one escaped to tell the dreadful
tale."

"And supposing he hadn't walked under ladders, but was alive in the
West Indies, what relation would he be to you and to me?"

She was proceeding to tell him in all good faith, but he stopped her.
"And now," he said, "I will tell you a tale. But first, as my feelings
have been considerably harassed, I will solace myself with a pipe."

She was being taught to fill his pipe, and to light it, and on this
occasion was made to take a couple of draws to prove to herself that
she had not properly cleaned it with the hairpin, according to
instructions given last nigh