"A--GIRL!"

"Yes, a girl. Oh, I've been all through that, and I know how you feel.
But as near as I can make out, it's really so. I've had instructions to
tell everybody, and I've told. I got Kate on the telephone, and she's
coming over. You KNOW what SHE'LL be. Dong Ling is having what I suppose
are Chinese hysterics in the kitchen; and Pete is swinging back and
forth like a pendulum in the dining-room, moaning 'Good Lord, deliver
us!' at every breath. I would suggest that you follow me down-stairs so
that we may be decently ready for--whatever comes." And he turned about
and stalked out of the room, followed by Cyril, who was too stunned to
open his lips.

Kate came first. She was not stunned. She had a great deal to say.

"Really, this is a little the most absurd thing I ever heard of," she
fumed. "What in the world does your brother mean?"

That she quite ignored her own relationship to the culprit was not lost
on Bertram. He made instant response.

"As near as I can make out," he replied smoothly, "YOUR brother has
fallen under the sway of a pair of great dark eyes, two pink cheeks, and
an unknown quantity of curly hair, all of which in its entirety is his
namesake, is lonesome, and is in need of a home."

"But she can't live--here!"

"Will says she shall."