YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART 



Just then my sensitive ears caught the 

 sound of quick, short breathing through the 

 half-open pantry door. There was some- 

 thing suspicious in the sound, and glad to 

 turn tail on the torn dress, and if possible 

 turn the little man's attention, too, I pounced 

 noisily into the pantry. There was a pic- 

 ture in a frame, for Inez's handsome face 

 and head were in at the rear window, over 

 the mixing-bowl, and, as she jumped hastily 

 back, she struck the sash above her with 

 such a bump that it caught the big ears of 

 the little man, who, instead of following to 

 the pantry to find nothing and see nothing, 

 reached out quickly and opened the rear 

 kitchen door to the north, and slipped out. 

 I squeezed between his legs, in my zeal, as 

 he went, and there was Inez, just disap- 

 pearing around the lilac-bush at the corner, 

 with one hand nursing the back of her head. 



He never said a word; he only whistled 

 the third line of Becky's song "Dar's 

 whar mer heart am turnin' ebber," and with 

 the air of a man " dat had done settled dat 

 sum in 'rithmetics," as Becky called it, he 

 stalked out of the kitchen and rejoined the 

 master and mistress. Then, looking about 

 118 



