The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives Part 25

"And he's a regular stupid old know-nothing, isn't he, baby?"

And she made the baby give the poker such a thrust of sympathy that it stuck fast in the fire.

"Whew!" she exclaimed, jerking it out. "How hot that fire is! I'm fairly cooked!"

There was a peculiar expression on Steve's face, and all at once Nannie remembered a newspaper clipping that had dropped from one of his note-books that day when she cleared his desk. A sudden thought struck her and caused her to pause with the poker in mid air.

"Have you been cooking me, sir?" she asked in awful tones, taking her seat as a judge might take his bench.

Steve's color started and a strange smile dawned upon his face. His very looks convicted him.

Now it was Nannie who was flushing, and so prettily, pursing up her bewitching mouth in the old way.

"Am I done?" she asked presently in a lower tone.

"To a turn!" he replied.

"Then I think I'll get off the spit, by your leave, sir," she said with saucy bravado.

And she arose to move back from the fire.

"Steve!" she cried, "you are _devouring_ me!"

THE END.