s sake, say something, you little sillies!" she cried. "I
suppose you want me to lose my temper?"

Caroline gulped and Miss Honey examined her shoe-ties mutely.

Suddenly a well-known voice floated toward them.

"Was his nice bottle all ready? Wait a minute, only a minute now,
General, and Delia'll give it to you!"

The procession filed into the room, Delia and the General, Ellis
deferentially holding a tiny white coat, the man in livery bearing a
small copper saucepan in which he balanced a white bottle with some
difficulty. His face was full of anxious interest.

Delia thanked them both gravely, seated herself on the foot of the
basket-chair, arranged the General flat across her knees, and, amid the
excited silence of her audience, shook the bottle once or twice with the
air of an alchemist on the brink of an epoch-making discovery.

"Want it? Does Delia's baby want it?" she asked enticingly. The General
waved his arms and legs wildly; wreathed in smiles, he opened and shut
his mouth in quick alternation, chirping and clucking, as she held it up
before him; an ecstatic wriggling pervaded him, and he chuckled
unctuously. A moment later only his deep-drawn, nozzling breaths could
be heard in the room.

"He takes it beautiful," said Delia, in low tones, looking
confidentially at the Princess. "I didn't know but being in a strange
place might make a difference with him, but he's the best-baby!----"

She wiped his mouth when he had finished, and lifting him, still
horizontal, approached her hostess.

"You can hold him now," she said superbly, "but keep him flat for twenty
minutes, please. I'll go and take the bottle down, and get his carriage
ready. He'll be good. He'll take a little nap, most likely."

She laid him across the rose-colored lap of the Princess, who looked
curiously down on him, and offered him her finger tentatively. "I never
held one before," she explained. "I--I don't know." ... The General
smiled lazily and patted the finger, picking at the great sapphire.

"How soft its hands are," said the Princess. "They slip off, they are so
smooth! And how good--does it never cry?" This she said half to herself,
and Caroline and Miss Honey, knowing there was no need to answer her,
came and leaned against her knee unconsciously, and twinkled their
fingers at the baby.

"Hello, General! Hello!" they cried softly, and the General smiled
impartially at them and caressed the lady's finger.

The Princess st