The Imp Disposes
—when all these, I say, gathered round her and shuffled each other about and suggested errands for each other and the Imp, he was not to worm his way through the group and cuddle her hand and grin at them triumphantly. Personal and particular summons must precede such action on his part.
So he lurked on the outside of the ring that always surrounded her and cast such glances as would have melted a harder heart than the one that beat under the sweet-smelling red chiffons. Sometimes on such occasions she would single him out and they would start for a walk alone, the group dissolving behind her as quickly as it had formed. And this, as I said, was particularly pleasing to the Imp.
To-day, however, things went wrong in the very beginning. Miss Eleanor had a headache and asked him please not to step all the time on her skirt; he had been sent from the breakfast-table for rudeness to the waiter, which rankled still at ten o'clock; it appeared that their walk was to end at the big tree half way through the wood that separated the North Beach from the South Beach. This was hardly enough to stretch
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