"Not understand me, my dear fellow! Why, Perowne keeps a most ferocious creature there, and it's loose too." "Loose?" cried Mrs Doctor, excitedly. "Oh, yes: I've seen it about the grounds, parading up and down on the lawn by the river, and in the house as well." "Gracious me, Henry, the man must be mad! What is it?" cried Mrs Bolter. "Regular tigress--man-eater," said the doctor. "And you allowed your brother-in-law to go there without warning, Henry? Really, I am surprised at you!" "Oh! pooh, pooh!" ejaculated the doctor. "Arthur can take care of himself." "And here have I accepted an invitation for all of us to go there the week after next to dinner! I won't go. I certainly will not go." "Nonsense, my dear Mary--nonsense!" said the doctor, with his eyes twinkling. "We must go. Perowne would be horribly put out if we did not." "Now look here, Henry, when I was a maiden lady I never even kept a cat or a dog, because I said to myself that live animals about a house might be unpleasant to one's friends. So how do you suppose that when I have become a married lady I am going to sanction the presence of dangerous monsters in a house?" "Oh, but it won't hurt you," said the doctor. "I tell you it's a man-eater. We must go, Mary." "I certainly must beg of you not to ask me," said the little lady. "My dear Harry, it gives me great pain to go against your wishes, but I could not--I really could not go." "Not if I assured you it was perfectly safe?" "If you gave me that assurance, Henry, I--I think I would go; for I believe you would not deceive me." "Never," said the doctor, emphatically. "Well, I assure you that you need not be under the slightest apprehension." "But is it chained up, Harry?" "Well, no, my dear," replied the little doctor; "they could not very well chain her up. But I was there yesterday though, and I saw that Perowne had given her a very handsome chain." "Then why doesn't he chain her up? I shall certainly tell Mr Perowne that he ought. This comes of the poor man having no wife and living out in these savage parts. Really, Henry, I don't think we ought to go." "Oh! pooh, pooh--nonsense, my dear! You've nothing to mind. I'm not afraid of her. I'll take care of you." "I know you are very good, and brave, and strong, Harry," said the little lady, smiling, "and if you say it is safe I will go, for I do trust in your knowledge, and--there, now, I declare I am quite angry! You are laughing, sir! I'm sure there is some trick!" "Trick? What trick?" cried the doctor, chuckling. "Do you mean to tell me, sir, that Mr Perowne has a wild tigress running about his place?" "Oh, no; I never said a wild tigress--did I, Arthur?" "I--I did not quite hear what you said, Henry," replied the chaplain. "You said a dangerous creature--a sort of tigress, sir." "Right, so I did; and so he has." "What is it then?" said Mrs Doctor, very sharply. "A handsome young woman," chuckled the doctor--"his daughter Helen."