Page:Jepson--Pollyooly.djvu/235

 Indeed I should not wonder if I were unique," he said proudly.

"Yes, sir," said Pollyooly.

She spread a little tea-cloth on the end of the table and set the tea things, the bread and butter and the cake on it.

The lady talked quickly to the Honorable John Ruffin of how Pollyooly came to be such an exact red Deeping; the Honorable John Ruffin showed a certain lack of interest in the matter. It was enough for him that old strains did crop up among the village folk. He protested that he was not a scientific man to make the biological researches necessary to the complete elucidation of the fact.

All the while she talked, the lady's eyes never moved from Pollyooly's face. Then she cut herself short in the middle of a sentence, and cried:

"John, I've got a splendid idea!"

"Good heavens!" said the Honorable John Ruffin.

"Yes, I'm going to get Marion all to myself after all," she said triumphantly.

"No, Caroline, you are not," said the Honorable John Ruffin in a tone of extreme severity and with