to give me Freule Menela's message.

"You wanted to hear it, didn't you?" she asked, when Nell had drifted
away to the twins, whose society, though not enlivening, she apparently
preferred to poor Alb's.

"I've waited so long, that I could have waited a little longer," I said,
following the copper-gold head with wistful eyes.

"This is your gratitude!" exclaimed the L.C.P. "You don't seem to
realize that I've saved you."

I looked at her, only to be baffled as usual by the blue barrier of
glass.

"You don't deserve all the trouble I've taken," she went on. "Or that I
should tell you anything about it. Come, Tibe, let's go below. Darling
doggie, you've spoiled me for everybody else. _You_ are always
appreciative. Nobody else is."

"You think that, because he happens to have a tail to wag, and others
haven't," said I. "I consider myself as good as Tibe, any day, though
handicapped in some ways. I'll soon show you that I'm not ungrateful,
when you've let me know exactly what cause I have for gratitude. Have
you murdered the late fiancee, and thrown her out of your hotel window
into the canal?"

"I've got rid of her just as effectively," returned the L.C.P. "I went
and talked to her in her room last night, when she was undressing. Ugh!
but she was plain in her wrapper. It was a pink flannellet one. Imagine
it, with her skin."

"I'd rather not," said I.

"If it weren't for me, probably you'd often have had to see her in it.
Well, I made an excuse that she'd looked tired, and complained of the
noise under her windows preventing her sleeping. I offered her some
trional, and then--I just lingered. She thought it wise to be nice
to--_your_ aunt, and I turned the conversation to you. She said you were
charming. I said you would be, if you hadn't such a terrible temper. I
said you were almost mad with it sometimes, when you were a little boy.
Yes, I did, really--you ought to thank me. I dare say you _were_ a
horrid little boy. But she didn't seem to mind that much. She told me
that she got along splendidly with bad-tempered people: they were always
nice to her. That discouraged me a tiny bit, but I hadn't played any
really high trumps yet. I went on to say you were very delicate, but she
seemed quite pleased at that, although, if she only knew it, she'd be
_hideous_ in black. She said she thought delicate men were the most
interesting, so that drove me to desperation, and after I'd praised you
a little, just enough to