ing of the puppies, to pull the
blanket over them, and feel their noses. It seemed to him that they
were perspiring a little, and he was worried lest they catch cold. His
morning sleep (it had always been his comfortable habit to lie abed a
trifle late) was interrupted about seven o'clock by a lively clamour
across the hall. The puppies were awake, perfectly restored, and while
they were too young to make their wants intelligible, they plainly
expected some attention. He gave them a pair of old slippers to play
with, and proceeded to his own toilet.

As he was bathing them, after breakfast, he tried to enlist Fuji's
enthusiasm. "Did you ever see such fat rascals?" he said. "I wonder if
we ought to trim their tails? How pink their stomachs are, and how pink
and delightful between their toes! You hold these two while I dry
the other. No, not that way! Hold them so you support their spines. A
puppy's back is very delicate: you can't be too careful. We'll have to
do things in a rough-and-ready way until Dr. Holt's book comes. After
that we can be scientific."

Fuji did not seem very keen. Presently, in spite of the rain, he was
dispatched to the village department store to choose three small cribs
and a multitude of safety pins. "Plenty of safety pins is the idea,"
said Gissing. "With enough safety pins handy, children are easy to
manage."

As soon as the puppies were bestowed on the porch, in the sunshine, for
their morning nap, he telephoned to the local paperhanger.

"I want you" (he said) "to come up as soon as you can with some nice
samples of nursery wallpaper. A lively Mother Goose pattern would do
very well." He had already decided to change the spare room into a
nursery. He telephoned the carpenter to make a gate for the top of the
stairs. He was so busy that he did not even have time to think of his
pipe, or the morning paper. At last, just before lunch, he found a
breathing space. He sat down in the study to rest his legs, and looked
for the Times. It was not in its usual place on his reading table. At
that moment the puppies woke up, and he ran out to attend them. He would
have been distressed if he had known that Fuji had the paper in the
kitchen, and was studying the HELP WANTED columns.

A great deal of interest was aroused in the neighbourhood by the arrival
of Gissing's nephews, as he called them. Several of the ladies, who had
ignored him hitherto, called, in his absence, and left extra cards. This
i