"I'm always the awkwardest fellow alive!" cried he, dismally. "And how is Bessie, dear girl?"
Mellen roused himself.
"I will call her," he said; "she is quite well, and will be delighted to see you."
He went into the house in search of his wife, and Elsie began to tease her unfortunate victim, a pastime of which she never wearied. It seemed to her the funniest thing in the world to make that great creature blush and stammer, to lead him on to the perpetration of absurd things, to laugh at him, to bewilder his honest head; for any pain he might suffer, she considered it no more than she did the sorrows of a Fejee Islander, or the chirp of her canary.
"Have you come down here prepared to be agreeable?" she asked. "Remember, I expect you to devote yourself completely to my service—to wait on me like the most devoted of knights."
"I'd stand on my head if you asked it," answered Tom, impetuously.
"How deliciously odd you would look!" cried Elsie; "you shall try it some day; I only hope it won't leave you with a brain fever, but then it couldn't, Tom,—where is the capital for such a disease to come from?"
"You may tease me as much as you like," said Tom, "if you'll only say you are glad to see me."
"Oh, you will be invaluable," replied Elsie; "I was getting bored with watching other people's love-making. Can you row a boat and teach me to play billiards, and be generally nice and useful?"
"Just try me, that's all!" said Tom.