going to say "always like that"; it was
a mistake she was constantly in danger of. But she stopped in time,
and changed her speech to "You're not without your faults, you know!
You never can come to an anchor, and be quiet. You sit on the arms of
chairs, and your hands are too big and strong. No; you needn't stop. Go
on!" We like leaving the words to elucidate the concurrent action. "And
you don't smell much of tobacco."

Fenwick, however, had noticed the kink in the thread, and must needs
wind it back to get a clear line. "I was always what?" said he. His
wife saw a way out.

"Always good when your daughter was here to manage you." It wasn't so
satisfactory as it might have been, but answered in dealing with a mind
so unsuspicious. Sally's having spent Christmas and stayed on a little
at a friend's in the country lent plausibility to a past tense which
might else have jarred.

"I don't want the kitten all to myself, you know," said Fenwick. "It
wouldn't be fair. After all, she _was_ yours before she was mine."

There was not a tremor in the hand that lay in his, the one that was
not caressing her cheek; not a sign of flinching in the eyes that
turned round on him; not a trace of hesitation in the voice that said,
with concession to a laugh in it: "Yes, she _was_ mine before she was
yours." Such skill had grown in this life of nettle-grasping!--indeed,
she hardly felt the sting now. This time she was able to go on
placidly, in the unconnected way of talk books know not, and life
well knows:

"Do you know what the kitten will be next August?"

"Yes; twenty-one."

"It's rather awful, isn't it?"

"Which way do you mean? It's awful because she isn't _fiancee_, or
awful because she might be at any minute?"

"You've picked up her way of going to the point, Gerry. I never said
anything about her being _fiancee_."

"No, but you meant it."

"Of course I did! Well, then, because she might be any minute. I'm
very glad she _isn't_. Why, you know I _must_ be!"

"_I_ am, anyhow!"

"Just think what the house would be without her!"

"The best place in the world still for me." She acknowledges this by
a kiss on his hairy hand, which he returns _via_ her forehead; then
goes on: "All the same, I'll be hanged if I know what we should do
without our kitten. But has anything made you afraid?"

"Oh no; nothing at all! Certainly; no, nothing. Have _you_ noticed
anything?"

"Oh dear, no! For anything I can see, she may con