or "Polly wants a kiss," in a perfunctory way; but on
the whole he had never known a more comfortable or a less loquacious
bird.

"He--he made a communication to me this afternoon," said Mrs Bowldler
delicately; "or, as you might prefer to put it, he passed a remark."

"What was it?"

Mrs Bowldler cast a glance behind her at the gas jet. "I really
couldn't, sir! Not even if you were to put out the light; and as a
gentleman you won't press it."

"Certainly not," Cai assured her. He mused. "It's odd now; but I've
always regarded that parrot as rather a dull bird: though of course I've
never hinted that to 'Bias--to Captain Hunken."

"He wasn't dull this afternoon," asseverated Mrs Bowldler. "Oh, not by
any manner of means!"

"Has he ever--er--annoyed you in this way before?"

"Never, sir."

"Has the boy ever heard him use--er--this kind o' language?"

"Which if you understand me, sir," explained Mrs Bowldler still more
delicately, "the remark in question would not apply to a male party: not
by any stretch. You may answer me, sir, that--the feathered tribes not
being Christians--they don't calculate who's listening, but behave as
the spirit moves them, like Quakers. To which I answer _you_, sir, that
makes it all the worse. As it transpired, Palmerston was at the moment
brushing down these very stairs, here, in the adjoining: which some
might call it luck and others again Providence. But put it we'd
happened to be cleaning out the room together, I must have sunk through
the floor, and what would have happened to the boy's morals I leave you
to guess."

Cai had to allow the cogency of this.

"As a matter of fact, sir," Mrs Bowldler continued, "I sounded
Palmerston later. He declares to me he has never heard the creature use
any bad language; and I believe him, for he went on to say that if he
_had_, he'd have mentioned it to me. But you see my position, sir?
It might even have happened with you two single gentlemen in the room.
. . . Stay another twenty-four hours in the house I will not, with the
chance of it staring me in the face."

Cai rubbed his chin. "I see," said he after a moment. "Well, it's
awkward, but I'll speak to Captain Hunken."

He did so, almost as soon as he and 'Bias had gloomily finished their
supper--a repast which largely consisted of odds-and-ends (the _debree_,
in Mrs Bowldler's language) of yester-night's banquet. Each, as he ate,
unconsciously compared it--such is our