``Is it something infectious?''
``Th' Coloners so well as ever he was,'' said the boy; and
as no further explanation was forthcoming Groby had to
possess himself in mystified patience till he reached home.
His brother was waiting for him at the hall door.
``Have you heard about the parrot?'' he asked at once.
``'Pon my soul I'm awfully sorry. The moment he saw the
monkey I'd brought down as a surprise for you he squawked
out, `Rats to you, sir!' and the blessed monkey made one
spring at him, got him by the neck and whirled him round
like a rattle. He was as dead as mutton by the time I'd got
him out of the little beggar's paws. Always been such a
friendly little beast, the monkey has, should never have
thought he`d got it in him to see red like that. Can't tell
you how sorry I feel about it, and now of course you'll hate
the sight of the monkey.''
``Not at all,' said Groby sincerely. A few hours earlier
the tragic end which had befallen his parrot would have
presented itself to him as a calamity; now it arrived almost
as a polite attention on the part of the Fates.
``The bird was getting old, you know,'' he went on, in
explanation of his obvious lack of decent regret at the loss
of his pet.
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