"Now whites and blues--and little soft pussy-cat grays--" Mumblingly through her finger-muzzled mouth the Little Girl burst into explanations again. "Oh, but when I wear gray," she persisted, "the Parpa--never sees me! But when I wear purple he cares,--he cares--most awfully!" she boasted with a bitter sort of triumph. "Why when I wear purple and frizz my hair hard enough,--no matter who's there, or anything,--he'll stop right off short in the middle of whatever he's doing--and rear right up so perfectly beautiful and mad and glorious--and holler right out 'For Heaven's sake, take that colored Sunday supplement away!'" "Your Father's nervous," suggested the White Linen Nurse. Almost tenderly the Little Girl reached up and drew the White Linen Nurse's ear close down to her own snuggling lips. "Damned nervous!" she confided laconically. Quite against all intention the White Linen Nurse giggled. Floundering to recover her dignity she plunged into a new error. "Poor little dev--," she began. "Yes," sighed the Little Girl complacently. "That's just what the Parpa calls me." Fervidly she clasped her little hands together. "Yes, if I can only make him mad enough daytimes," she asserted, "then at night when he thinks I'm all asleep he comes and stands by my cribby-house like a great black shadow-bear and shakes and shakes his most beautiful head and says, 'Poor little devil--poor little devil.' Oh, if I can only make him mad enough daytimes!" she cried out ecstatically. "Why, you naughty little thing!" scolded the White Linen Nurse with an unmistakable catch in her voice. "Why, you--naughty--naughty--little thing!" Like the brush of a butterfly's wing the child's hand grazed the White Linen Nurse's cheek. "I'm a lonely little thing," she confided wistfully. "Oh, I'm an awfully lonely little thing!" With really shocking abruptness the old malicious smile came twittering back to her mouth. "But I'll get even with the Parpa yet!" she threatened joyously, reaching out with pliant fingers to count the buttons on the White Linen Nurse's dress. "Oh, I'll get even with the Parpa yet!" In the midst of the passionate assertion her rigid little mouth relaxed in a most mild and innocent yawn. "Oh, of course," she yawned, "on wash days and ironing days and every other work day in the week he has to be away cutting up people 'cause that's his lawful business. But Sundays, when he doesn't really need to at all, he goes off to some kind of a green, grassy club--all day long--and plays golf."