"I most forgot about that s'prise," said the child to Jermyn, as she stopped before him. "The dinner was so good, and you folks talked so much, that I didn't get a chance to say nothin', and then I got sleepy while you was singin', and I'd have forgot all about it entirely if you hadn't begun to talk about throwin' money to dogs, and papa explained how it was." Then she raised both hands high in the air and shouted: "Here's your old pictures." "Come on, boys," shouted the Admiral, springing forward, and snatching both sketches. He explained afterward, very sheepishly, that he believed his mind had been weakened by long anxiety about those sketches, for he imagined himself young again, and taking part in a landing party in Mexico. "Oh, Trixy," exclaimed Trif, snatching her child into her arms, "you naughty, precious, dreadful, blessed, awful, angelic, terrible, lovely darling!" "Jermyn!" exclaimed Kate, and Jermyn opened his arms, while Fenie gasped "Harry!" and Harry made haste to support her. The ladies being thus disposed of, the Admiral and Phil could only shake hands, which they did with a vigor that made each man wince. Finally Phil said: "My dear, will you kindly stop kissing that child long enough for me to ask her a question? Trixy, where did you get those sketches?" "Why, I found out that 'twas you that took one of 'em out of my scrap-book, and I thought it was just one of your tricks, so I'd play one on you, and the first thing I knew I got the chance, 'cause a lot of papers fell out of a coat of yours on a chair, and there was one of the pictures on the outside of a letter, and 'twas my own picture, so I took it, and afterwards I found there was one somethin' like it on the inside part of the letter, and I was goin' to tell you, some time, how nicely I had tricked you. Then I heard a lot of talk about pictures that the Admiral and Mr. Jermyn wanted, and I thought mebbe I had 'em, and I knew mamma was goin' to have both of the gentlemen here to dinner in a day or two, and I thought I'd keep the s'prise till then, when there'd be more people to laugh at it." "Suppose," said Trif with frightened eyes, "that I had set the dinner for to-morrow instead of to-day!" "But you didn't, my dear madam," said the Admiral. "All the world loves a lover, and I devoutly believe heaven does too. Suppose that you had put Trixy to bed at the usual hour!" "Oh, don't!" "Let me see the sketches, Admiral," said Kate. She looked at them carelessly, turned them over, and said: "Trif, the writing on this page has been erased. May I read it?" "Yes, dear, if you will take it into the next room." Kate was absent several moments--a long time, Jermyn said, to read what his own eyes had seen at a glance, but when she returned she embraced Trif effusively and Jermyn told himself that Kate's eyes were most angelic when they were dewy. * * * * *