Thus agi'eeably situated, with Peace to point the argii-
ments and be snippy in the pauses, he carelessly permitted
Mrs. McCross' transparent management ; taught in the
Sunday-school (pure morality, nothing more, as he care-
fully explained) ; read history with perseverance; cut his
bell-rope so patients shouldn't call him up at night ; in
short, wasted his time to the entire satisfaction of all
parties.
This morning the dilettante found Fir Covert parlor
empty. Voices up-stairs, in the thirds and semi-tones of
animated but pleasant discussibn, informed him of the
whereabouts of the mates, and a talkative parrot, hung
above the plants in the window, called out ^' Good-morn-
iug." " Pretty cold," said she, conversationally. Then,
holding up a claw, " Poppy want to come." Concluding
Mr. Haytliorne resolved to negative the proposition,
she asked why the men didn't propose, with extreme
interest ; said something about dear, dear somebody
several times, and kissed vociferously. The visitor still
continuing self-absorbed, she emptied her seed cup on his
head out of revenge, and remarked that her father was a
drunkard and her mother dead, in hilarious accents.
Mr. Haytliorne was not the man to forgive in a parrot
things objectionable in humanity ; he annihilated her with
a glare, which led her to make a dab at him so energetic
that she got her head out of the cage, and had hard work
to pull it in again, and so lost her temper as to make pie
of her furniture the minute she succeeded.
But the object of her ire had taken refuge by the piano.
