"But I _do_ want you to."

"Very well, then; and now I want you first of all, darling, to tell me
how you happened to get into such danger."

"Well, you know," began Minnie, who now seemed calmer--"you know we
all went out for a drive. And we drove along for miles. Such a drive!
There were lazaroni, and donkeys, and calèches with as many as twenty
in each, all pulled by one poor horse, and it's a great shame; and
pigs--oh, _such_ pigs! Not a particle of hair on them, you know, and
looking like young elephants, you know; and we saw great droves of
oxen, and long lines of booths, no end; and people selling macaroni,
and other people eating it right in the open street, you know--such
fun!--and fishermen and fish-wives. Oh, how they _were_ screaming, and
oh, _such_ a hubbub as there was! and we couldn't go on fast, and
Dowdy seemed really frightened."

"Dowdy?" repeated Mrs. Willoughby, in an interrogative tone.

"Oh, that's a name I've just invented for Lady Dalrymple. It's better
than Rymple. She said so. It's Dowager shortened. She's a dowager, you
know. And so, you know, I was on the front seat all the time, when all
at once I saw a gentleman on horseback. He was a great big man--oh,
_so_ handsome!--and he was looking at poor little me as though he
would eat me up. And the moment I saw him I was frightened out of my
poor little wits, for I knew he was coming to save my life."

"You poor little puss! what put such an idea as that into your
ridiculous little head?"