“Why, I asked him to.”
“Oh! you did, did you?”
“But don’t you think it’s queer, Nunky? don’t you think it’s queer?”
“Well, rather so, perhaps; but I always knew Beppo was a bright dog.—Come here, old fellow, and tell us why you never talked before.”
“Afraid you’d laugh at me,” replied Beppo, looking up in Mr. Gilman’s face rather bashfully.
“Oh, I must tell mamma! I must tell everybody!” burst forth the twins with one voice.
Mamma was busy up stairs with her dressmaker; and nobody was to be found but Teddy, who smiled in the most provoking way when told that Beppo was talking.
“You expect me to believe that story, do you?” said he, entering the parlor with a curling lip.
“Now see!” cried Pollio. “There, Beppo, sir, this is Teddy. Now say, ‘How do you do, Teddy?’”
Beppo held out his paw as he had been taught to do, but said nothing.