made was like a sob going down and a laugh coming up. "I'm not
crying," she said, "because it's so hard--but b--because the idea is so
f--funny."

"F--F--Funny?" said our Uncle Peter. "It's preposterous! It's
gro--tesque! It's--it's fantastic!"

He began to walk very fast from the book-case to the window and from the
window back to the book-case again. It wasn't till he'd stubbed his toe
twice on a toy Ferris Wheel that the twinkle came back to his eyes.

"Carol!" he said. "Ruthy!--In consideration of the reduced circumstances
in which this very pleasant Lady finds herself don't you think that you
could afford to offer her a reduced price on the dog,--your original
profit on the deal being as noted $49.50?"

The Lady jumped to her feet.

"Oh no--no--no!" she said. "Not for a moment! Fifty dollars is what I
offered! And fifty dollars it shall be! All dogs I'm sure are worth
fifty dollars. Especially if they don't sleep! Why all the other dogs
that people brought me did nothing except sleep! On my sofas! In my
chairs! Under my tables! Night or day you couldn't drop even so much as
a handkerchief on the floor that one or the other of them didn't camp
right down and go to sleep on it! Oh, no--no--no," protested the Lady,
"whatever my faults, a bargain is a bargain and----"

"Whatever your faults, my dear Madam," said our Uncle Peter, "they are
essentially feminine and therefore enchanting! It is only when ladies
ape the faults of men that men resent the same!--Your extravagant
indulgency--" he bowed towards the toys--"your absolute innocence of
all business guile--" he bowed towards Tiger Lily--"nerves strung so
exquisitely that the slightest--the slightest--"

The Lady shivered her clothes like a black frost.

"It was advice that I was looking for, not compliments," she said.

"Oh ho!" said Uncle Peter. "I'm infinitely more adept with advice than I
am with compliments!"

The Lady looked a little bit surprised. She frowned.

"It's my little boy that I want advice about," she said. "What IS the
best thing I can do for him?"

Our Uncle Peter looked at the ceiling. He looked at the rug. He looked
at the pictures on the wall. But it seemed to satisfy him most to look
at the Lady's face.

"U--m--m," he said. "U--m--mmmm.--That isn't an easy question to answer
unless you're willing first to answer a question of mine."

"Ask any question you want to," said the Lady.

"U--m--m," said our Uncle Peter all over again