The sorrel had been forgotten sure enough, and Beatrice ran out for some to take into the laboratory. The afternoon was extremely warm. As a usual thing the door between the study and the laboratory was kept closed, but today because of the heat Bee left it open, thinking to be in the room but a moment.
She arranged the sorrel grass in the cage where the larvæ were feeding and turned to leave the room when her attention was caught by a brilliant bit of color on a twig near a window.
"Oh!" she cried, as going close to it she discovered that it was a butterfly newly escaped from its chrysalis. "Oh, oh! it's father's rarest specimen! It's the Teinopalpus Imperialis! How delighted he will be. I wonder how soon it will fly!"
As the words left her lips the beautiful creature rose and circled the room majestically in its first flight.
"What a beauty!" cried Bee with enthusiasm. "Won't fath—Oh, the door!"
She ran toward it quickly, but she was too late. Through it sailed the butterfly into the study and out through the open window. Catching up her net Bee jumped through the window, and dashed after the insect. Daintily it settled upon a flower for a second, then away it went just as the girl gave her net a frantic swish to catch it. Hither and thither the creature darted as though intoxicated with its freedom after being earth-bound for so long. Round and round went Beatrice after it; onward and upward it flew, tantalizingly near sometimes, but ever escaping capture. Presently it rose, and disappeared over the tree tops.
