nd over
babykins as if he was afraid something would happen to her, an' growl
an' whine an' bark! I called him and he wouldn't pay no attention to
me and I had to go in and pick him up and carry him out, him an'
babykins together, and bring them out here. And he tried to go back
and I shut the door and then he crouched down beside it and worried
babykins an' tore holes in her an' whined an' growled an' trembled as
if he was most scared to death. Now, wasn't it queer and strange, Miss
Harry?"

Billikins had stopped eating and was looking up into their faces as
if he understood what they were talking about. Henrietta bent over him
and he crept whining to her feet and looked up at her with dumb appeal
in his eyes, as though begging to be saved from some mysterious,
menacing, unseen thing. She took him up in her arms and felt his
little body trembling with fear and excitement. Vivid recollection
came to her of how her own nerves had quivered and jangled in the
office that day, as long as her employer was there, until it had taken
all her strength to keep them under control.

"Poor little doggie," she said, stroking and cuddling him. "Come along
and we'll take babykins upstairs and sew her all up as good as new and
forget all about it."

"So that was the man you work for, Miss Harry!" Delia exclaimed as
Henrietta turned to leave the room. "I was dusting in the parlor when
he come an' I watched him as he come up the walk, and he's got a firm
and manly tread. He's fine-legged and handsome, Miss Harry, but if I
was you I'd be afraid of a man that a dog's afraid of, Miss Harry."

"We had such a jolly time," said Isabella to her sister as Henrietta
came to her room for a confidential chat during bedtime toilette
rites. "Felix Brand is just the loveliest ever. But you know I always
did think that, even before I met him. Mother was having her afternoon
nap when he came and I was doubtful about going. But he said,
nonsense, she'd sleep till I'd get back.

"At first I couldn't help feeling a little uneasy about her and
perhaps I was a tiny bit glum and not as entertaining as he thought
I'd be. And he seemed sort of glum and grim, too, and, altogether,
Harry, on the first lap the ride didn't promise to be entirely
successful.

"But after a while he was afraid I was cold and said we must find
something to warm us up. So we stopped at the Wayside Tavern--you
remember it, don't you? You know we went there on the trolley last
sum