rouble, were scandalized to find his
bloodthirsty aggressor installed in his place as an honoured domestic
pet.

"A nasty heathen ipe what don't never say nothing sensible and
cheerful, same as pore Polly did," was the unfavourable verdict of the
kitchen quarters.

* * * * *

One Sunday morning, some twelve or fourteen months after the visit of
Colonel John and the parrot-tragedy, Miss Wepley sat decorously in her
pew in the parish church, immediately in front of that occupied by
Groby Lington. She was, comparatively speaking a new-comer in the
neighbourhood, and was not personally acquainted with her
fellow-worshipper in the seat behind, but for the past two years the
Sunday morning service had brought them regularly within each other's
sphere of consciousness. Without having paid particular attention to
the subject, she could probably have given a correct rendering of the
way in which he pronounced certain words occurring in the responses,
while he was well aware of the trivial fact that, in addition to her
prayer book and handkerchief, a small paper packet of throat lozenges
always reposed on the seat beside her. Miss Wepley rarely had recourse
to her lozenges, but in case she should be taken with a fit of coughing
she wished to have the emergency duly provided for. On this particular
Sunday the lozenges occasioned an unusual diversion in the even tenor
of her devotions, far more disturbing to her personally than a
prolonged attack of coughing would have been. As she rose to take part
in the singing of the first hymn, she fancied that she saw the hand of
her neighbour, who was alone in the pew behind her, make a furtive
downward grab at the packet lying on the seat; on turning sharply round
she found that the packet had certainly disappeared, but Mr. Lington
was to all outward seeming serenely intent on his hymnbook. No amount
of interrogatory glaring on the part of the despoiled lady could bring
the least shade of conscious guilt to his face.

"Worse was to follow," as she remarked afterwards to a scandalized
audience of friends and acquaintances. "I had scarcely knelt in prayer
when a lozenge, one of my lozenges, came whizzing into the pew, just
under my nose. I turned round and stared, but Mr. Lington had his eyes
closed and his lips moving as though engaged in prayer. The moment I
resumed my devotions another lozenge came rattling in, and then
another. I took no notice for