"Ethel!" he cried desperately.
"If that ever happened again I should have to AMPUTATE YOU."
Brent walked over to the window-seat where he had left his automobile coat and cap and picked them up.
Ethel watched him quietly.
"Chris! Come here!"
He turned to her.
"There! It's over! I suppose I HAVE been a little hard on you. All forgotten?" She held out her hand. He bent over it.
"My nerves have been rather severely tried this past month," Ethel went on. "Put a mongrel into a kennel of thoroughbreds, and they will either destroy the intruder or be in a continual condition of unsettled, irritated intolerance. That is exactly MY condition. I'm unsettled, irritable and intolerant."
Brent sat beside her and said softly:
"Then I've come in time?"