"No use, sir. Thank you, just the same. It will never happen."

"How many nurses have you in your employ?"

"Four at present. We also have a school-teacher--I mean, a governess.
Excellent young woman. Teaches 'em French and German. Curiously enough
some of the children take to foreign languages quicker than the
others. Force says that Reginald is a Hebrew. He was supposed to be
Irish."

"Very interesting. All of them strong and healthy?"

"Absolutely. You'd think so if you could see 'em fight occasionally.
They've had the whooping cough and chicken-pox. My doctor is the
renowned Dr. Fiddler. You know of him?"

Mr. Bingle proceeded to dilate upon the activities and achievements of
Dr. Fiddler. There had been broken arms and prodigious bruises, cuts
and gashes of every conceivable character, and in every instance Dr.
Fiddler had performed with heroic fidelity. In the middle of a
particularly enthusiastic tribute to the doctor's skill as a fish-bone
extractor, Diggs appeared in the doorway, coughed indulgently, and
then advanced.

"Beg pardon, sir. Mrs. Bingle says the children are getting nervous.
They happear to be--"

A series of shrill screeches descended the stairway, followed by the
sudden slamming of a distant doorway and the instantaneous suppression