“Wherever he may happen to be just at present, or whoever he may happen to be,” said Miss Wren, “I know his tricks and his manners, and I give him warning to look out.”

“Don’t you think you are rather hard upon him?” asked her friend, smiling, and smoothing her hair.

“Not a bit,” replied the sage Miss Wren, with an air of vast experience. “My dear, they don’t care for you, those fellows, if you’re not hard upon ’em. But I was saying If I should be able to have your company. Ah! What a large If! Ain’t it?”

“I have no intention of parting company, Jenny.”

“Don’t say that, or you’ll go directly.”

“Am I so little to be relied upon?”