I glanced toward Jasper Hardress. "I have heard," said I, hopefully, "that there is consumption in the family?"
"Heavens, no! he told me that before marriage to encourage me, but I find there is not a word of truth in it."
Then Jasper Hardress came to welcome his guest, and save from a distance I saw no more that evening of Gillian Hardress.
It was the following day, about noon, as I sat intent upon my Paris _Herald_ that a tiny finger thrust a hole in it. I gave an inaudible observation, and observed a very plump young person in white with disfavour.
"And who may you happen to be?" I demanded.
"I'm Gladys," the young lady responded; "and I've runned away."
"But not without an escort, I trust, Miss Gladys? Really--upon my word, you know, you surprise me, Gladys! An elopement without even a tincture of masculinity is positively not respectable." I took the little girl into my lap, for I loved children, and all helpless things. "Gladys," I said, "why don't you elope with me? And we will spend our honeymoon in the Hesperides."
"All right," said Gladys, cheerfully. She leaned upon my chest, and the plump, tiny hand clasped mine, in entire confidence; and the contact moved me to an irrational transport and to a yearning whose aim I could not comprehend. "Now tell me a story," said Gladys.
So that I presently narrated to Gladys the ensuing
"Fair Sou-Chong-Tee, by a shimmering brook Where ghost-like lilies loomed tall and straight, Met young Too-Hi, in a moonlit nook, Where they cooed and kissed till the hour was late: Then, with lanterns, a mandarin passed in state, Named Hoo-Hung-Hoo of the Golden Band, Who had wooed the maiden to be his mate-- For these things occur in the Flowery Land.
"Now, Hoo-Hung-Hoo had written a book, In seven volumes, to celebrate The death of the Emperor's thirteenth cook: So, being a person whose power was great, He ordered a herald to indicate He would blind Too-Hi with a red-hot brand And marry Sou-Chong at a quarter-past-eight,-- For these things occur in the Flowery Land.
"And the brand was hot, and the lovers shook In their several shoes, when by lucky fate A Dragon came, with his tail in a crook,-- A Dragon out of a Nankeen Plate,-- And gobbled the hard-hearted potentate And all of his servants, and snorted, _and_ Passed on at a super-cyclonic rate,-- For these things occur in the Flowery Land.