THE MASONS 201 



as may be supposed, fairly held her breath 

 and steeled her nerves to receive as com- 

 posedly as possible a deliberate and well- 

 deserved stinging. 



But wasps seldom sting if they stop to 

 deliberate, and Pelopasus certainly was not 

 anxious to imperil her future by stinging 

 unnecessarily, and thereby risking the loss 

 of her sting, which is also her ovipositor, 

 and which is in danger of being left in 

 the wound if she uses it for purposes of 

 discipline. 



She poised in front of the intruder's 

 face so close that it was trying, to at least 

 one of the actors in this little drama, to 

 maintain the situation. Not a motion be- 

 trayed the fact that Pelopasus' strange 

 visitor was alive, not a muscle moved, and, 

 perhaps concluding she had mysteriously 

 encountered some sort of mummy or 

 ghost, Pelop^us went about her busi- 

 ness — and allowed the intruder to remain 

 about hers. 



