And then he imprinted a kiss on the dog's sharp-pointed little nose.
"Doesn't he ever bite you?" she asked, interested.
"He has had the advantage of a rigorous military training," he replied, "and consequently he is used to kisses."
She burst out into a new fit of merriment, and he held out to her the struggling woolly little animal, asking her if she would like to kiss Tommy too.
Laughing, she declined; laughing, she walked on in his company. "Weak as ever," she told herself.
Still in fits of silvery laughter, she came into the lighted hall, where Fräulein von Schwertfeger met her, with large reproachful eyes.
"Where have you been, child?" she asked, prepared on the spot to subject her to a calm and judicial cross-questioning.
"Oh, he's such fun!" was all Lilly could gurgle forth as she buried her face, flushed from laughing, on her duenna's shoulder. "Such fun!"
"You don't mean to say----?"
"Yes, I do. Do you think I would leave him in the lurch, my charming little old pal?"