“We’ve had such a good time this evening,” said Mrs. Marne when, at her early bedtime, she bade Henrietta goodnight. “Wasn’t Bella charming! And so pretty she looked with her bright eyes and that dainty color in her cheeks! It made me wish Warren was here to see her. I suppose I’m dreadfully old-fashioned, Harry, but it always seems to me that if a woman is looking especially beautiful or charming it’s somehow just wasted if the man who loves her isn’t there to see it. Wasn’t it kind of Mr. Brand to take Bella out this afternoon! And she did enjoy it so much! I can’t be grateful enough that you were so fortunate as to get a position under such a thorough gentleman!”
Billikins was Henrietta’s dog and her particular care. When she went to the kitchen to feed him after dinner she found him licking many gaping wounds in the body and clothing of his cherished plaything, the rag-doll. Delia had an excited story to tell her of his disreputable conduct during the afternoon.
“It was very queer and strange, Miss Harry, the way he acted when Mr. Brand was here. An’ him always such a mild and innocent little dog! Of course he had to run into the hall when the bell rang, like he always does, to see what’s happening, with babykins in his mouth, and as I went upstairs to call Miss Bella, he trotted into the parlor where I’d shown the gentleman. An’ when I come down you just ought to’ve heard the wild an’ awful noises he was making! He’d dropped his doll and was whining an’ howling an’ growling, and he’d run toward Mr. Brand an’ bark an’ growl, and then he’d run back and stand over babykins as if he was afraid something would happen to her, an’ growl an’ whine an’ bark! I called him and he wouldn’t pay no attention to me and I had to go in and pick him up and carry him out, him an’ babykins together, and bring them out here. And he tried to go back and I shut the door and then he crouched down beside it and worried babykins an’ tore holes in her an’ whined an’ growled an’ trembled as if he was most scared to death. Now, wasn’t it queer and strange, Miss Harry?”
Billikins had stopped eating and was looking up into their faces as if he understood what they were talking about. Henrietta bent over him and he crept whining to her feet and looked up at her with dumb appeal in his eyes, as though begging to be saved from some mysterious, menacing, unseen thing. She took him up in her arms and felt his little body trembling with fear and excitement. Vivid recollection came to her of how her own nerves had quivered and jangled in the office that day, as long as her employer was there, until it had taken all her strength to keep them under control.
“Poor little doggie,” she said, stroking and cuddling him. “Come along and we’ll take babykins upstairs and sew her all up as good as new and forget all about it.”
“So that was the man you work for, Miss Harry!” Delia exclaimed as Henrietta turned to leave the room. “I was dusting in the parlor when he come an’ I watched him as he come up the walk, and he’s got a firm and manly tread. He’s fine-legged and handsome, Miss Harry, but if I was you I’d be afraid of a man that a dog’s afraid of, Miss Harry.”
“We had such a jolly time,” said Isabella to her sister as Henrietta came to her room for a confidential chat during bedtime toilette rites. “Felix Brand is just the loveliest ever. But you know I always did think that, even before I met him. Mother was having her afternoon nap when he came and I was doubtful about going. But he said, nonsense, she’d sleep till I’d get back.
“At first I couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy about her and perhaps I was a tiny bit glum and not as entertaining as he thought I’d be. And he seemed sort of glum and grim, too, and, altogether, Harry, on the first lap the ride didn’t promise to be entirely successful.