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 comes down I can tell her we’re engaged—see?”

“It’s all very well,” said Judy, two hours later, when, with the licence of an engaged young lady, she said good-bye to her lover at the front door. “You say you do—and—and yes, of course, I’m glad—but Alcibiades doesn’t love me any more.”

“Doesn’t he? you wait till I bring him to-morrow!”

“But he never came this morning.”

“Poor little beast! Judy, the fact is I’ve gone on making the chain heavier and heavier, and this morning—well, it was too much for him. He couldn’t drag it all the way: it was a regular ship’s cable, don’t you know? I came up with him at Blackheath Station, and he was so done I had to carry him all the way home in my arms. He’s quite all right again now; I left him at home, tied to the fire-irons in my bedroom.”

“Then he does love me, after all,” said Judy.

“Well, he’s not the only one,” said the Captain.

And at that moment came from the other side of the front door the familiar whine,