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Rh funny that Corinne sat back on her heels and, punching the colonel's knee, cried in a burst of laughter:

"Oh, look, colonel, look! Ain't she cunning?"

The colonel looked. The cat turned, still in the skirt, and eyed them both with a look of hurt protest. It appealed to the colonel's humor as it had to Corinne's. Their combined laughter filled the room and greeted Viola as she came up the passage from one of her long walks.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked, as she opened the door and entered like a pale vision wilted with the heat and light outside.

The colonel's laughter died away immediately. Her listless air of delicacy struck him anew with the silent reproach which her mere presence now seemed to suggest. All amusement faded from his face, and he looked guiltily conscious, like a child found in mischief.

A short time after this a hot spell struck the city. Though it was September, the heat was stifling. For three days the mercury stood so high that even Corinne's engrossingly arduous play with the doll and the kitten was listlessly performed, and she spent most of her time in the sitting-room with Viola and the colonel, where, behind closed shutters, they gasped away the hours. The old man seemed to feel