an
ever.

"For heaven's sake, say something, you little sillies!" she cried.
"I suppose you want me to lose my temper?"

Caroline gulped and Miss Honey examined her shoe ties mutely.

Suddenly a well-known voice floated toward them.

"Was his nice bottle all ready? Wait a minute, only a minute now,
General, and Delia'll give it to you!"

The procession filed into the room, Delia and the General, Ellis
deferentially holding a tiny white coat, the man in livery bearing a
small copper saucepan in which he balanced a white bottle with some
difficulty. His face was full of anxious interest.

Delia thanked them both gravely, seated herself on the foot of the
basket chair, arranged the General flat across her knees, and amid
the excited silence of her audience, shook the bottle once or twice
with the air of an alchemist on the brink of an epoch-making
discovery.

"Want it? Does Delia's baby want it?" she asked enticingly. The
General waved his arms and legs wildly; wreathed in smiles, he
opened and shut his mouth in quick alternation, chirping and
clucking, as she held it up before him; an ecstatic wriggling
pervaded him, and he chuckled unctuously. A moment later only
his deep-drawn, nozzling breaths could be heard in the room.
They watched him in hushed satisfaction; once, as he smiled
gratefully at Delia, Ellis sighed with pleasure.

"Ain't he sweet, though!" she murmured, and then glancing at the
butler, giggled impressibly as the strained attitudes of the
circle struck her.

"That will do, thank you, Haddock," said the Princess quickly,
drawing a long breath and seating herself, and the two servants
withdrew. Delia noted nothing, her eyes fixed on her charge;
clearly, it would not have surprised her in the least if they
had all stood, rapt, till the meal was over.

"He takes it beautiful," she said in low tones, looking
confidentially at the Princess; "I didn't know but being
in a strange place might make a difference with him, but
he's the best baby!--"

She wiped his mouth and lifting him, still horizontal,
approached her hostess.

"You can hold him now," she said superbly, "but keep him flat
for twenty minutes, please. I'll go and take the bottle down,
and get his carriage ready. He'll be good. He'll take a little
nap, most likely."

She laid him across the rose-colored lap of the Princess, who looked
curiously down on him, and offered him her finger tentatively. "I
never held one before," she expl