"That is nonsense, my dear——"
"Papa has invented no end of wonderful things," interrupted Katie proudly.
Helen looked up expectantly, and Dido answered,—
"Yes; little machines for measuring and weighing air; but, unfortunately, his most remarkable contrivances have all been discovered before!"
"And what is he doing now?"
"He is constructing an apparatus that is to be the marvel of the age. It is to be an overwhelming success. A surprise to humanity; but I do not know what it is!"
"Can you not guess?"
Dido shook her head gravely, and Katie burst out, "Poor papa is out of his element here. When we were children—indeed, till Dido was sixteen—we lived in Germany, as you know, at a cheap little place, called Kraut, and the Padré had plenty of congenial society, and made many literary friends, who profess a great interest in his work still. He takes them into his confidence. They know all about it.—They often write to him——"
"To ask for money," appended Dido bitterly. "They are not real savants and inventors, and great literary lights, as papa fancies—at least, I don't think they are. Certainly, some of our neighbours at Kraut were clever, intellectual people, but others, whom papa picked up in the train, or in the gardens, or the street, it's my opinion they were all impostors. You remember the man from Baden, Katie; you remember the Pole; you remember the Italian who——"
"Don't talk of them!" cried her sister impatiently. "They were all swindlers and thieves!"