Oh, if you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again.
"I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was joking.
"'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single child ?' "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he cried.

'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided always that they were such commands as a lady might with propriety obey.

You see no difficulty, heh ?' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'Quite so.

In dress now, for example.

We are faddy people, you know--faddy but kind-hearted.