back and tall, and
glared slightly. Seeing however that nothing more was done, it
subsided.

Just then the wheels of a cab were heard rattling towards the front
door, as if in haste. The vehicle stopped suddenly. Then there was
impatient thundering at the knocker, and wild ringing of the bell.

"Fire!" gasped the half-petrified Mrs Rigonda.

"No smell!" said her half-paralysed spouse.

Loud voices in the passage; stumbling feet on the stairs; suppressed
female shrieks; bass masculine exclamations; room door burst open; old
couple, in alarm, on their feet; cat, in horror, on the top of the
bookcase!

"Mother! mother! O father!"--yelled, rather than spoken.

Another moment, and the bald, little old man was wrestling in the
ex-queen's arms; the little old lady was engulfed by Dominick and Otto;
Dr John Marsh and Brown-eyes stood transfixed and smiling with idiotic
joy at the door; while the cat--twice its size, with every hair erect--
glared, and evolved miniature volcanoes in its stomach.

It was an impressive sight. Much too much so to dwell on!

Passing it over, let us look in on that happy home when toned down to a
condition of reasonable felicity.

"It's a dream--all a wild, unbelievable dream!" sighed the old
gentleman, as, with flushed face and dishevelled hair, he spread himself
out in an easy chair, with Queen Pina on his knee and Brown-eyes at his
feet. "Hush! all of you--wait a bit."

There was dead silence, and some surprise for a few seconds, while Mr
Rigonda shut his eyes tight and remained perfectly still, during which
brief lull the volcanic action in the cat ceased, and its fur slowly
collapsed.

"Dreams shift and change so!" murmured the sceptical man, gradually
opening his eyes again--"What! you're there yet, Pina?"

"Of course I am, darling daddy."

"Here, pinch me on the arm, Dominick--the tender part, else I'll not
waken up sufficiently to dispel it."

A fresh outburst of hilarity, which started the stomachic volcanoes and
hair afresh, while Pauline flung her arms round her father's neck for
the fiftieth time, and smothered him. When he was released, and
partially recovered, Otto demanded to know if he really wanted the dream
dispelled.

"Certainly not, my boy, certainly not, if it's real; but it would be so
dreadfully dismal to awake and find you all gone, that I'd prefer to
dream it out, and turn to something else, if possible, before waking.
I--I--"

Here the old gentl