am presumably going to leave off
being Laura, but I shall go on being something. An animal of some kind,
I suppose. You see, when one hasn't been very good in the life one has
just lived, one reincarnates in some lower organism. And I haven't been
very good, when one comes to think of it. I've been petty and mean and
vindictive and all that sort of thing when circumstances have seemed to
warrant it."

"Circumstances never warrant that sort of thing," said Amanda hastily.

"If you don't mind my saying so," observed Laura, "Egbert is a
circumstance that would warrant any amount of that sort of thing. You're
married to him--that's different; you've sworn to love, honour, and
endure him: I haven't."

"I don't see what's wrong with Egbert," protested Amanda.

"Oh, I daresay the wrongness has been on my part," admitted Laura
dispassionately; "he has merely been the extenuating circumstance. He
made a thin, peevish kind of fuss, for instance, when I took the collie
puppies from the farm out for a run the other day."

"They chased his young broods of speckled Sussex and drove two sitting
hens off their nests, besides running all over the flower beds. You know
how devoted he is to his poultry and garden."

"Anyhow, he needn't have gone on about it for the entire evening and then
have said, 'Let's say no more about it' just when I was beginning to
enjoy the discussion. That's where one of my petty vindictive revenges
came in," added Laura with an unrepentant chuckle; "I turned the entire
family of speckled Sussex into his seedling shed the day after the puppy
episode."

"How could you?" exclaimed Amanda.

"It came quite easy," said Laura; "two of the hens pretended to be laying
at the time, but I was firm."

"And we thought it was an accident!"

"You see," resumed Laura, "I really _have_ some grounds for supposing
that my next incarnation will be in a lower organism. I shall be an
animal of some kind. On the other hand, I haven't been a bad sort in my
way, so I think I may count on being a nice animal, something elegant and
lively, with a love of fun. An otter, perhaps."

"I can't imagine you as an otter," said Amanda.

"Well, I don't suppose you can imagine me as an angel, if it comes to
that," said Laura.

Amanda was silent. She couldn't.

"Personally I think an otter life would be rather enjoyable," continued
Laura; "salmon to eat all the year round, and the satisfaction of being
able to fetch th