116 The Arrival of “ Kate.”


However, Bob hustled a bit more than the others, and secured

the lady.


Kate arrived, looking decidedly cheap, after her long

voyage from India and subsequent experiences in the Irish Sea,

with drooping wings and closing eyes, and she needed considerable

washing down, tonicking, and feeding with many cockroaches and

other delicacies, before she was in a condition to be presented to her

future husband.


Up to this he was enjoying an open-air life, with plenty

of room, hut he manifested no objection to transferring his quarters

to quite a small villa next Kate’s dwelling.


Bob’s first call was rather a violent affair, and resolved itself

into a sort of rough-and-tumble on her doorstep, with the door

closed. “ Rotten form of sport this kind of canoodling,” I imagine

I heard him say.


Proceedings subsequently quieted down somewhat, and he

divided his attention between wrestling with the Demon beetle-trap,

in a vain endeavour to extract some of the contents, and dashing on

to Kate’s doorstep. He made himself look wonderfully attractive,

spreading his wings and displaying the beautiful white patch above

his tail, singing lustily all the time, in a more subdued and attractive

manner, however, than usual.


Kate seemed much gratified with all the attention, showing

her satisfaction by whistling her own little tune, and calling him

back whenever he wandered away to the counter-attraction of the

beetle-trap.


As regards their conversation, it seemed to partake of the

form of, “ D’ye know, I’m getting very fond of you,” answered from

the other side of the door by : “Noiv you’re talking,” “ None of your

blarney,” or other vulgar expressions picked up in the country of the

lady’s adoption.


A horrid old cynic in the person of a Gold-fronted Fruitsucker

living opposite understood, I think, more of the conversation than I

did, as I observed him turning a more vivid green than usual—with

utter disgust, I take it; and I think I heard a murmur from the

Nightingale living next door, “ I can stand a good deal, but this is a

hit thick.” I am not prepared, however, to swear to this.



