"All evening you've had something in your mind to tell me and I've
been giving forth. You must forgive a man for so many words--when he
has been living with little children so long. What is it?"

"Just a reading of a tea-cup to-day--but everything you said has its
meaning concerned in it."

"I'm almost as interested in tea-cups as in the stars," said Fallows.

"You know a toy-bear, such as the Germans make?"

"Yes--"

"Well, it would have been like that--if one were thinking of toys. We
thought of the Russian Bear. It was perfect--in the bottom of the cup
--standing up, walking like a man--huge paunch, thick paws held out
pathetically, legs stretched out, just as he would be, rocking, you
know--"

Fallows bowed seriously. Mowbray turned his smile to the shadows.

"Near him," Berthe added, "was a Russian soldier--perfect--fur cap,
high boots, tightly belted, very natty--more perfect than we see in
the streets, as if drawn from ideal. He was stabbing the bear with a
long pole, leisurely--"

"It was a rifle and bayonet," said Peter. "We both saw it, but didn't
speak until now. He was churning the bayonet around in the great
paunch as if feeling for the vitals. The bear looked large and