Mr. Parcher, that unhappy gentleman, having been driven indoors from his own porch, had attempted to read Plutarch’s Lives in the library, but, owing to the adjacency of the porch and the summer necessity for open windows, his escape spared only his eyes and not his suffering ears.  The house was small, being but half of a double one, with small rooms, and the “parlor,” library, and dining-room all about equally exposed to the porch which ran along the side of the house.  Mr. Parcher had no refuge except bed or the kitchen, and as he was troubled with chronic insomnia, and the cook had callers in the kitchen, his case was desperate.  Most unfortunately, too, his reading-lamp, the only one in the house, was a fixture near a window, and just beyond that window sat Miss Pratt and William in sweet unconsciousness, while Miss Parcher entertained the overflow (consisting of Mr. Johnnie Watson) at the other end of the porch.  Listening perforce to the conversation of the former couple though “conversation” is far from the expression later used by Mr. Parcher to describe what he heard—­he found it impossible to sit still in his chair.  He jerked and twitched with continually increasing restlessness; sometimes he gasped, and other times he moaned a little, and there were times when he muttered huskily.

“Oh, cute-ums!” came the silvery voice of Miss Pratt from the likewise silvery porch outside, underneath the summer moon.  “Darlin’ Flopit, look!  Ickle boy Baxter goin’ make imitations of darlin’ Flopit again.  See!  Ickle boy Baxter puts head one side, then other side, just like darlin’ Flopit.  Then barks just like darlin’ Flopit!  Ladies and ‘entlemen, imitations of darlin’ Flopit by ickle boy Baxter.”

“Berp-werp!  Berp-werp!” came the voice of William Sylvanus Baxter.

And in the library Plutarch’s Lives moved convulsively, while with writhing lips Mr. Parcher muttered to himself.

“More, more!” cried Miss Pratt, clapping her hands.  “Do it again, ickle boy Baxter!”

“Berp-werp!  Berp-werp-werp!”

“Word!” muttered Mr. Parcher.

Miss Pratt’s voice became surcharged with honeyed wonder.  “How did he learn such marv’lous, marv’lous imitations of darlin’ Flopit?  He ought to go on the big, big stage and be a really actor, oughtn’t he, darlin’ Flopit?  He could make milyums and milyums of dollardies, couldn’t he, darlin’ Flopit?”

William’s modest laugh disclaimed any great ambition for himself in this line.  “Oh, I always could think up imitations of animals; things like that—­but I hardly would care to—­to adop’ the stage for a career.  Would—­you?” (There was a thrill in his voice when he pronounced the ineffably significant word “you.”)

Miss Pratt became intensely serious.

“It’s my dream!” she said.