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144 choke it while it lay there helpless with merriment.

She jumped from her couch, her fingers spread like a cat's claws.

"I'll get you—you—you Thing!" she said the words out loud. "I'll get you! I'll get you!"

Her voice rose in a shrill, tearing shriek—step by step, she approached the divan.

"I'll get you—get you—get you—"

"Madame! Madame! Did you call me?"

It was the maid's voice coming from the hall. "No—no! Go to bed, Annette! Go to bed—do you hear me?" as the maid rattled the door-knob. "I don't want to be disturbed—"

"I beg your pardon, madame," Annette coughed discreetly. "I didn't know that anybody—thought you had come home alone—I—"

"Go to bed! At once!" Diana shrieked; then, the maid's footsteps pattering away, she fell on the couch, panting.

She was in a towering rage. She felt sure that if it had not been for the maid she could have pounced upon the Thing while it lay there on the floor, roaring with laughter.

Now the laughter had died out and the Thing had got away. It had shrunk into a tiny butterfly—