"Quite well, thank you. How are you?" replied Viva fluently. She paid no attention to Sylvia at the other side of the fireplace, but leant confidingly against Jack's chair, staring at him with rapt attention. His eyes looked as if they liked you very, very much; his moustache had sharp little ends which stood out stiff and straight, there was a lump in his throat which moved up and down as he spoke--altogether he was a most fascinating person, and quite deserving of attention. "Are you the papa?" she asked enviously. "My papa has got a brown face with lines in it. He is very old. My muzzer is old too. She is talking to the lady in the 'nother room, and she said I was to be amused. You are to amuse me!" "No, no, quite a mistake. You must amuse me!" said Jack solemnly. "I have been out all day, and am tired and sleepy, so you must do something to cheer me up. What can you suggest, now, that would be really lively and entertaining?" Viva reflected deeply. "I'm learning the `Pied Piper of Hamelin'!" "You don't say so!" "Yes, I am. I'll say it to you now, from the beginning right to the very miggle!" "Thanks awfully. I should be delighted--another time. Not to-day, I think, if you don't mind. I have rather a sore throat." Viva opened her eyes and stared at the Adam's apple which showed above the white necktie. She was trying to puzzle out the connection between Mr O'Shaughnessy's throat and the Pied Piper, but the difficulty was too great. She heaved a sigh, and hazarded another suggestion. "You tell _me_ a story!" "That would never do. I should be entertaining you, and it ought to be the other way about." "I'll tell you a story!" "That's better. Go ahead, then. What is it to be about? Fairies?" "No, it's not going to be about fairies,--fairies is silly. Giants are more sensibler than fairies, because there was a giant once. There was Golosher!" "I beg your pardon?" "Golosher!" "Don't know the gentleman." "Oh, you naughty! And David killed him in the Bible. I'll tell you a story about giants." "I don't think I am interested in giants." "Princesses, then, beautiful princesses, and cruel people trying to be unkind to them, and princes running away and marrying them, and living happily ever afterwards." "That's the style for my money! Fire away, and let us have plenty of adventure. I'll lean back in this chair and listen to you." Viva moistened her lips, swallowed rapidly once or twice, and began her story in a shrill, high-pitched voice. "Once upon a long, long time ago, there was a princess, and she was the most beautiful princess that was ever born. Everyone said so, and her face was as white as snow, and her hair as yellow as--" "Excuse me--brown!" "No, it wasn't brown. Bright, curly, golden, down to her--" "Then she couldn't have been the most beautiful princess in the world, because I've seen the lady and her hair is brown."