. Tales of fantasy . ildredeyed him doubtfully for a moment, and then gave went the quaint little figure, now darting underthe brass bedstead, now dodging around the legs of thetable, and now slipping between the feet of his pursuerat the instant she was on the point of laying hand onhim. Owing doubtless to some peculiarity of his ar-ticulation, each movement of his limbs was accompaniedby a rustling wiry sound like the faint reverberation ofa banjo-string somewhere in the distance. Heliogabalus may have been a person with no greatconversational gift, but his gymnastic acquirements
. Tales of fantasy . ildredeyed him doubtfully for a moment, and then gave went the quaint little figure, now darting underthe brass bedstead, now dodging around the legs of thetable, and now slipping between the feet of his pursuerat the instant she was on the point of laying hand onhim. Owing doubtless to some peculiarity of his ar-ticulation, each movement of his limbs was accompaniedby a rustling wiry sound like the faint reverberation ofa banjo-string somewhere in the distance. Heliogabalus may have been a person with no greatconversational gift, but his gymnastic acquirements were of the first order. ./.«.. Mildred not only could not catchhim, but she couldnot restrain themanikin frommeanwhile doingall kinds of desul-tory mischief; forin the midst of hiscourse he wouldpause to overturn her tin kitchen, or shy a plate acrossthe room, or give a vicious twitch to the lovely goldenhair of Blondella, in spite of — perhaps in consequenceof — his recent tender advances. It was plain that in. A Christmas Fantasy, with a Moral 49 eluding Mildred he was prompted by caprice ratherthan by fear. If things go on in this way, she reflected, Ishant have anything left. If I could only get thedreadful little creature into a corner ! There goes rnytureen! What shall I do ? To quit the room, even for a moment, in order tocall for assistance at the head of the staircase, where,moreover, her voice was not likely to reach any one,was to leave everything at the mercy of that smalldemon. Mildred was out of breath with running, andready to burst into tears with exasperation, when a dif-ferent mode of procedure suggested itself to her. Shewould make believe that she was no longer angry, andpossibly she could accomplish by cunning what she hadfailed to compass by violence. She would consent —at least seem to consent — to let him marry Blondella,though he had lately given no signs of a very fervidattachment. Beyond this Mildred had no definitescheme, when the story of
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