The bird stretched out its neck with the darting pounce of a snake, snatched at the gaudy little book, gulped, swallowed and——
“Beautiful missionary!” he said, pausing in his dance, “do you think the savage animal would eat you?”
“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Vandaleur pettishly. “I can’t stand this wind; it makes Daisie’s little foots too cold. Let’s go in.”
“If it will not eat the lovely missionary, will it eat the lovely hymn book too?” asked the Marquis, teasing the bird with the little book he held in his hand. The answer came suddenly, and in a way that he hardly expected. I do not think the Marquis had ever heard that the cassowaries are much the same as ostriches in their appetite for strange and seemingly inappropriate food. If he had not, he was enlightened now. The bird stretched out its neck with the darting pounce of a snake, snatched at the gaudy little book, gulped, swallowed and....
“By gum!” cried the Marquis, “she has eat up the hymn book too!”
“Daisie’s little foots are so cold,” complained Mrs. Vandaleur, shivering in the wind. “Daisie wants to go to her little own home again.”
It seemed to me that she was anxious to pass over the incident without remark, which struck me as odd, considering that it was her own gift to the Marquis that the mischievous bird had destroyed. We all went back to the house, and before very long our hostess began to yawn in an elegant but obvious manner that conveyed an unmistakable hint. The Marquis rose to leave and I followed him.
He was looking worried and depressed, and I should have been glad enough to say something to comfort him a little if I had thought it safe. But in the light of past events, I certainly did not. Nevertheless, I was mentally skipping and dancing all the way back to the hotel. For now I thought I saw my way.
When I had left the Marquis in his room, I waited for a little while and then went straight back to Mrs. Vandaleur’s. I found her alone on the veranda; and this time all her rouge could not conceal the sudden paleness that crept like a white mist over her pretty face when she saw me return alone.