lly vivacious!

_Dr. Herd._ So I should say. But tell me, ALINE, is she _really_ going
to stay with us here? [_Nervously._

_Mrs. Herd._ (_looks at him_). So she tells me. And, as she has brought
nothing with her except a tooth-brush and a powder-puff, I am going into
the town to get her a few articles. We _must_ make her feel at home.

_Dr. Herd._ (_breaking out_). I _will_ make her not only _feel_, but
_be_ at home, wherever that is, this very day! I will _not_ have a
perambulating Allegory without a portmanteau here on an indefinite
visit. I say, she shall go--do you hear, ALINE? Miss WANGEL will go!

[_Raps with his fist on table._

_Mrs. Herd._ (_quietly_). If you say so, HAUSTUS, no doubt she will
_have_ to go. But you must tell her so yourself.

[_Puts the watering-pot on the console table, and goes
out, as_ HILDA _enters, sparkling with pleasure._

_Hilda_ (_goes up straight to him_). Good morning, Dr. HERDAL. I have
just seen a pig killed. It was _ripping_--I mean, gloriously thrilling!
And your wife has taken a tremendous fancy to me. Fancy _that_!

_Dr. Herd._ (_gloomily_). It _is_ eccentric certainly. But my poor dear
wife was always a little----

_Hilda_ (_nods her head slowly several times_). So _you_ have noticed
that too? I have had a long talk with her. She can't get over your
discharging Mr. KALOMEL--he is the only man who ever _really_ understood
her.

_Dr. Herd._ If I could only pay her off a little bit of the huge,
immeasurable debt I owe her--but I can't!

_Hilda_ (_looks hard at him_). Can't _I_ help you? I helped RAGNAR
BROVIK. Didn't you know I stayed with him and poor little KAIA--after
that accident to my Master Builder? I did. I made RAGNAR build me the
loveliest castle in the air--lovelier, even, than poor Mr. SOLNESS'S
would have been--and we stood together on the very top. The steps were
rather too much for KAIA. Besides, there was no room for her on top. And
he put towering spires on all his semi-detached villas. Only, somehow,
they didn't let. Then the castle in the air tumbled down, and RAGNAR
went into liquidation, and I continued my walking-tour.

[Illustration: "Beautiful rainbow-coloured powders that
will give one a real grip on the world!"]

_Dr. Herd._ (_interested against his will_). And where did you go after
_that_, may I ask, Miss WANGEL?

_Hilda._ Oh, ever so far North. There I met Mr. and Mrs. TESMAN--the
second Mrs. TESMAN--she w