'I thought she almost wished it this morning,' said Ethel, 'when she
heard how you and Mab had taken to each other: but it is a very
choice present; the creature looks to me to be of a very fine sort.'

'Now, Miss May, how could you know that?'

'Why, by her own deportment! Don't you know the aristocratic look
that all high-bred animals have--even bantams?'

Leonard looked as if this were the most convincing proof of Ethel's
wisdom, and proceeded. 'Well, she is descended from a real King
Charles, that Charles II. brought from France, and gave to Mrs. Jane
Lane; and they have kept up the breed ever since.'

'So that Mab will have the longest pedigree in Stoneborough; and we
must all respect her!' said Ethel, stroking the black head.

'I am only surprised at Leonard's forgetting his place,' said Aubrey.
'Walking before her majesty, indeed!'

'Oh, attendants do come first sometimes.'

'Then it should be backwards! I have a mind to try lying on the
beach to-morrow, looking interesting, to see what will descend upon
me!'

'A great yellow mongrel,' said Ethel, 'as always befalls imitators in
the path of the hero.'

'What? You mean that it was all the work of Leonard's beaux yeux?'