“Nothing—only engaged him for our butler—for life.”
“Oh, I see. That was dear of you, Billy.”
“As if I'd do anything else! And now for Dong Ling, I suppose, some day.”
Bertram chuckled.
“Well, maybe I can help you there,” he hinted. “You see, his Celestial Majesty came to me himself the other day, and said, after sundry and various preliminaries, that he should be 'velly much glad' when the 'Little Missee' came to live with me, for then he could go back to China with a heart at rest, as he had money 'velly much plenty' and didn't wish to be 'Melican man' any longer.”
“Dear me,” smiled Billy, “what a happy state of affairs—for him. But for you—do you realize, young man, what that means for you? A new wife and a new cook all at once? And you know I'm not Marie!”
“Ho! I'm not worrying,” retorted Bertram with a contented smile; “besides, as perhaps you noticed, it wasn't Marie that I asked—to marry me!”
CHAPTER XI. A CLOCK AND AUNT HANNAH
Mrs. Kate Hartwell, the Henshaw brothers' sister from the West, was expected on the tenth. Her husband could not come, she had written, but she would bring with her, little Kate, the youngest child. The boys, Paul and Egbert, would stay with their father.