anything in the past or in the future, and he'd just be coming
along like that with the corners of his mouth a little turned up, and
his fair hair a little ruffled, and his charming young face full of a
sober and abstracted radiance.

"Not much kidnapping there, I guess," said Mr. Twist with a jerk of his
thumb. "And you take it from me, Anna I.," he added quickly, leaning
over towards her, determined to get off to the garage before he found
himself faced by both twins together, "that when next your imagination
gets the jumps the best thing you can do is to hold on to it hard till
it settles down again, instead of wasting your time and ruining your
constitution going pale."

And he started the Ford with a bound, and got away round the corner into
the yard.

Here, in the yard, was peace; at least for the moment. The only living
thing in it was a cat the twins had acquired, through the services of
one of the experts, as an indispensable object in a really homey home.
The first thing this cat had done had been to eat the canary, which gave
the twins much unacknowledged relief. It was, they thought secretly,
quite a good plan to have one's pets inside each other,--it kept them so
quiet. She now sat unmoved in the middle of the yard, carefully cleaning
her whiskers while Mr. Twist did some difficult fancy driving in order
to get into the stable without inconveniencing her.

Admirable picture of peace, thought Mr. Twist with a sigh of envy.

He might have got out and picked her up, but he was glad to manoeuvre
about, reversing and making intricate figures in the dust, because it
kept him longer away from the luncheon-table. The cat took no notice of
him, but continued to deal with her whiskers even when his front wheel
was within two inches of her tail, for though she hadn't been long at
The Open Arms she had already sized up Mr. Twist and was aware that he
wouldn't hurt a fly.

Thanks to her he had a lot of trouble getting the Ford into the stable,
all of which he liked because of that luncheon-table; and having got it
in he still lingered fiddling about with it, examining its engine and
wiping its bonnet; and then when he couldn't do that any longer he went
out and lingered in the yard, looking down at the cat with his hands in
his pockets. "I must think," he kept on saying to himself.

"Lunchee," said Li Koo, putting his head out of the kitchen window.

"All right," said Mr. Twist.

He stooped down as though to