you wicked swine! D'you
hear? _Stop it!_"

From beneath the bed a further burst of mischief answered him....

Once again feminine subtlety prevailed where the straightforward efforts
of a man were fruitless. As I flung myself down upon the opposite side
of the bed--

"Nobby," said Jill in a stage whisper, "chocolates!"

The terrier paused in his work of destruction. Then he dropped the
mangled remains of the letter and put his head on one side.

"Chocolates!"

The next second he was scrambling towards the foot of the bed....

I gathered together the _debris_ and rose to my feet.

Nobby was sitting up in front of Jill, begging irresistibly.

"What a shame!" said the latter. "And I haven't any for you. And if I
had, I mightn't give you them." She looked round appealingly. "Isn't he
cute?"

"Extraordinary how that word'll fetch him," said I. "I think his late
mistress must have----"

"I'm sure she must," said Berry, taking the ruins of his correspondence
out of my hand. "Perhaps she also taught him to collect stamps. And / or
crests. And do you mean to say you've got no chocolates for him? How
shameful! I'd better run round and knock up Gunter's. Shall I slip on a
coat, or will the parquet do?"

"There's no vice in him," I said shakily. "It was a misunderstanding."

With an awful look Berry gingerly withdrew from what remained of the
envelope some three-fifths of a dilapidated dividend warrant, which
looked as if it had been immersed in water and angrily disputed by a
number of rats.

"It's--it's all right," I said unsteadily. "The company'll give you
another."

"Give me air," said Berry weakly. "Open the wardrobe, somebody, and give
me air. You know, this is the violation of Belgium over again. The
little angel must have been the mascot of a double-breasted Jaeger
battalion in full blast." With a shaking finger he indicated the cheque.
"Bearing this in mind, which would you say he was to-night--useful or
ornamental?"

"Neither the one, nor the other," said I. "Merely diverting."

Expectantly my brother-in-law regarded the ceiling.

"I wonder what's holding it," he said. "I suppose the whitewash has
seized. And now, if you'll assist me downstairs and apply the usual
restoratives, I'll forgive you the two pounds I owe you. There's a
letter I want to write before I retire."

Half an hour later the following letter was dispatched--

_SIR,_

_The enclosed are, as a patient scrutiny will reveal, the