that that wasn't worth calling a `conversation' at all. `Oo should have asked him a riddle!' he added triumphantly. `Why, I asked the Professor three riddles! One was that one you asked me in the morning, "How many pennies is there in two shillings?" And another was--' `Oh, Bruno!' Sylvie interrupted. `That wasn't a riddle!' `It were!' Bruno fiercely replied.)

By this time a waiter had supplied Bruno with a plateful of something, which drove the plum-pudding out of his head.

`Another advantage of dinner-parties,' the Professor cheerfully explained, for the benefit of anyone that would listen, `is that it helps you to see your friends. If you want to see a man, offer him something to eat. It's the same rule with a mouse.'

`This Cat's very kind to the Mouses,' Bruno said, stooping to stroke a remarkably fat specimen of the race, that had just waddled into the room, and was rubbing itself affectionately against the leg of his chair. `Please, Sylvie, pour some milk in your saucer. Pussie's ever so thirsty!'

`Why do you want my saucer?' said Sylvie. `You've got one yourself!'

`Yes, I know,' said Bruno: `but I wanted mine for to give it some more milk in.'

Sylvie looked unconvinced: however it seemed quite impossible for her ever to refuse what her brother asked: so she quietly filled her saucer with milk, and handed it to Bruno, who got down off his chair to administer it to the cat.

`The room's very hot, with all this crowd,' the Professor said to Sylvie. `I wonder why they don't put some lumps of ice in the grate? You fill it with lumps of coal in the winter, you know, and you sit around it and enjoy the warmth. How jolly it would be to fill it now with lumps of ice, and sit round it and enjoy the coolth!'

Hot as it was, Sylvie shivered a little at the idea. `It's very cold outside,' she said. `My feet got almost frozen to-day.'

`That's the shoemaker's fault!' the Professor cheerfully replied. `How often I've explained to him that he ought to make boots with little iron frames under the soles, to hold lamps! But he never thinks. No one would suffer from cold, if only they would think of those little things. I always use hot ink, myself, in the winter. Very few people ever think of that! Yet how simple it is!'

`Yes, it's very simple,' Sylvie said politely. `Has the cat had enough?' This was to Bruno, who had brought back the saucer only half-emptied.

But Bruno did not hear the question. `There's somebody scratching at the door and wanting to come in,' he said. And he scrambled down off his chair, and went and cautiously peeped out through the door- way.

`Who was it wanted to come in?' Sylvie asked, as he returned to his place.

`It were a Mouse,' said Bruno. `And it peepted in. And it saw the Cat. And it said "I'll come in another day." And I said "Oo needn't be flightened. The Cat's welly kind to Mouses." And it said "But I's got some important business, what I must attend to." And it said "I'll call again to-morrow." And it said "Give my love to the Cat."'

`What a fat cat it is!' said the Lord Chancellor, leaning across the Professor to address his small neighbour. `It's quite a wonder!'

`It was awfully fat when it camed in,' said Bruno: `so it would be more wonderfuller if it got thin all in a minute.'