'I'm going to have some fun seeing the dog kill it.'

Hazel went quite white.

'You shanna! Not till I'm jead,' she said. 'It's come to me to be took
care of, and took care of it shall be.' She reached a foot out and
kicked the hound.

Reddin's mood changed. He burst out laughing.

'You're a sight more amusing than hedgehogs,' he said; 'the beast can
go free, for all I care.'

He pulled her on to his knee and kissed her.

'Send the hound-dog out, then.'

When the hound had gone, resentfully, the hedgehog--a sphinx-like,
protestant ball--enjoyed the peace, and Hazel became again (as Reddin
thought) quite the right sort of girl to live with.

During the uproar they had not heard wheels in the drive, so they were
startled by Vessons' intrigue insertion of himself into a small opening
of the door, his firm shutting of it as if in face of a beleaguering
host, and his stentorian whisper:

'Ere's Clombers now!' as if to say, 'When you let a woman in you never
know what'll become of it.'

'Tell 'em I'm ill--dead!' said his master. 'Tell 'em I'm in the