"Then they started to walk again, and though I felt a little
sneak right down to my shoes, I listened and listened for
anything more. But they wandered off into the Pressed Steel Car
Company, till it got so tiresome I ached all over.

"That night I didn't do anything, because I wanted to think it
ever; but the next morning I went to papa and asked him
point-blank if I might sell Gee-whizz if I wanted go. He looked
very grave, and talked a lot about what a good horse Gee-whizz
was, and how hard I'd find it to replace her. But it was one of
papa's rules that there shouldn't be any strings to his presents
to me--that's the comfort of having a thoroughbred for your
father, you know--and ever since I was a little child he had
always told me what was mine was mine to do just what I liked
with. He's the whitest father a girl ever had. But he spoke to
me beautifully in a sort of man-to-man way, and was perfectly
splendid in not asking any questions. If he hadn't been such a
bubble-hater, I'd have thrown my arms round his neck and told him
everything. So I let it go at promising him the refusal of the
mare in case I decided to sell her.

"Then I kited after Mr. Collenquest, whom I found in a hammock,
reading a basketful of telegrams.

"'Oh, don't get up,' I said (because he was always a most
punctilious old fellow). 'The fact is, I just wanted to have a
little business talk with you.'

"'Oh, a business talk,' he said, in a be-nice-to-the-child tone.