"And you shouldn't tease me so; and it's very unkind in you; and you know I'm not well; and I can't bear to think about it all; and I know you're going to scold me; and you're _always_ scolding me; and you _never_ do what I want you to. And then people are _always_ coming and saving my life, and I can't bear it any more." "No-o-o-o-o-o, n-n-no-o-o-o, darling!" said Mrs. Willoughby, soothingly, in the tone of a nurse appeasing a fretful child. "You sha'n't bear it any more." "I don't _want_ them to save me any more." "Well, they sha'n't _do_ it, then," said Mrs. Willoughby, affectionately, in a somewhat maudlin tone. "And the next time I lose my life, I don't want to be saved. I want them to let me alone, and I'll come home myself." "And so you shall, darling; you shall do just as you please. So, now, cheer up; don't cry;" and Mrs. Willoughby tried to wipe Minnie's eyes. "But you're treating me just like a baby, and I don't want to be talked to so," said Minnie, fretfully. Mrs. Willoughby retreated with a look of despair. "Well, then, dear, I'll do just whatever you want me to do." "Well, then, I want you to tell me what I am to do." "About what?" "Why, about this great, big, horrid man." "I thought you didn't want me to talk about this any more." "But I _do_ want you to talk about it. You're the only person that I've got to talk to about it; nobody else knows how peculiarly I'm situated; and I didn't think that you'd give me up because I had fresh troubles." "Give you up, darling!" echoed her sister, in surprise. "You said you wouldn't talk about it any more." "But I thought you didn't want me to talk about it." "But I _do_ want you to." "Very well, then; and now I want you first of all, darling, to tell me how you happened to get into such danger." "Well, you know," began Minnie, who now seemed calmer--"you know we all went out for a drive. And we drove along for miles. Such a drive! There were lazaroni, and donkeys, and calèches with as many as twenty in each, all pulled by one poor horse, and it's a great shame; and pigs--oh, _such_ pigs! Not a particle of hair on them, you know, and looking like young elephants, you know; and we saw great droves of oxen, and long lines of booths, no end; and people selling macaroni, and other people eating it right in the open street, you know--such fun!--and fishermen and fish-wives. Oh, how they _were_ screaming, and oh, _such_ a hubbub as there was! and we couldn't go on fast, and Dowdy seemed really frightened." "Dowdy?" repeated Mrs. Willoughby, in an interrogative tone.