BELLA'S BUREAU.[4]
A STORY IN THREE SCARES.
SCARE THE FIRST.
I almost flung myself into Dick Vandeleur's arms when he entered my library that evening.
"Can you imagine why I sent for you in such a deuce of a hurry?" I blurted out, embracing him effusively in my pleasure at seeing him.
"Well, I did think there might have been a woman in the case," he drawled, in his deliberate way, stopping to adjust his neck-tie, which had worked its way over his ear during the struggle. "But then, as I happened to have acted as your best man only two months ago, when you married the most charming of women, why, b'Jove, I—"
"Well, it is a woman," I groaned, cutting his speech short.
"The devil!"
"Yes, and the very worst kind, I fancy, if thoroughly aroused."