much with _him_--he
makes me tired. I never saw anything so complacent as that girl
when she came in to-night, as if her little Georgie was the
greatest capture the world had ever seen. . . ."

She chattered on. Laura, passive, listened with a thoughtful
expression, somewhat preoccupied. The talker yawned at last.

"It must be after three," she said, listlessly, having gone over
her evening so often that the colours were beginning to fade. She
yawned again. "Laura," she remarked absently, "I don't see how you
can sleep in this bed; it sags so."

"I've never noticed it," said her sister. "It's a very comfortable
old bed."

Cora went to her to be unfastened, reverting to the lieutenant
during the operation, and kissing the tire-woman warmly at its
conclusion. "You're always so sweet to me, Laura," she said
affectionately. "I don't know how you manage it. You're so
good"--she laughed--"sometimes I wonder how you stand me. If I
were you, I'm positive I couldn't stand me at all!" Another kiss
and a hearty embrace, and she picked up her wrap and skurried
silently through the hall to her own room.

It was very late, but Laura wrote for almost an hour in her book
(which was undisturbed) before she felt drowsy. Then she
extinguished the lamp, put the book away and got into bed.

It was almost as if she had attempted to lie upon the empty air:
the mattress sagged under her weight as if it had been a hammock;
and something tore with a ripping sound. There was a crash, and a
choked yell from a muffled voice somewhere, as the bed gave way.
For an instant, Laura fought wildly in an entanglement of what she
insufficiently perceived to be springs, slats and bedclothes with
something alive squirming underneath. She cleared herself and
sprang free, screaming, but even in her fright she remembered her
father and clapped her hand over her mouth that she might keep
from screaming again. She dove at the door, opened it, and fled
through the hall to Cora's room, still holding her hand over her
mouth.

"Cora! Oh, Cora!" she panted, and flung herself upon her sister's
bed.

Cora was up instantly; and had lit the gas in a trice. "There's a
burglar!" Laura contrived to gasp. "In my room! Under the bed!"

"What!"

"I fell on him! Something's the matter with the bed. It broke. I
fell on him!"

Cora stared at her wide-eyed. "Why, it can't be. Think how long I
was in there. Your bed broke, and you just thought there was some
one the