--No? I
dare say he's off on one of his prowls then. A bit of a lunatic, but
a very charming fellow, Jelnik, though your amiable predecessor,
Miss Smith, chose to consider him a sort of outlawed tom-cat, and
warned him off with a shot-gun." The doctor paused, stroked his
beard, and regarded me earnestly.
"Having heired the old girl's domain, I hope you won't consider it
necessary to heir her--er--prejudices," he remarked hopefully. "Bad
lot, Sophronisba. Very bad!"
"Mrs. Scarlett," I reminded him gently, "was my relative only by
marriage."
"Cousin of mine; mother's relative. Not on speaking-, only on
fighting-terms," he interjected.
I remembered what Uncle Adam had told us; and I'm afraid I eyed him
a bit harder than politeness warranted.
"I discern by your eye, Miss Smith," said the doctor, "that you
think a blood relation is more likely to walk in that old demon's
footsteps than an outsider is. My dear lady, under ordinary
circumstances and with _human_ neighbors, I'm as meek as Moses; I am
a lamb, a veritable lamb! As for your aunt, she was a man-eating,
saber-toothed tigress!"
"Not my aunt, Doctor Geddes; your cousin.
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