"Beg pardon!" he exclaimed, stopping the young lady; "but you're mine. Here's the seven ninety-three, and seven cents for candy." 

 But she glanced at him in a haughty manner, and walked away with her nose slightly elevated. 

 He followed. He could not do otherwise with those delightful checks shining before him like beacon-lights to urge him on. 

 The young lady stepped into a car, which whirled away rapidly. For a moment he was nearly paralyzed at his loss; then he started after the car as fast as he could go, and this was very fast indeed—he being a woggle-bug. 

 Somebody cried: "Stop, thief!" and a policeman ran out to arrest him. But the Woggle-Bug used his four hands to push the officer aside, and the astonished man went rolling into the gutter so recklessly that his uniform bore marks of the encounter for many days. 

 Still keeping an eye on the car, the Woggle-Bug rushed on. He frightened two dogs, upset a fat gentleman who was crossing the street, leaped over an automobile that shot in front of him, and finally ran plump into the car, which had abruptly stopped to let off a passenger. Breathing hard from his exertions, he jumped upon the rear platform of the car, only to see his charmer step off at the front and walk mincingly up the steps of a house. Despite his fatigue, he flew after her at once, crying out: 

 "Stop, my variegated dear—stop! Don't you know you're mine?" 

 But she slammed the door in his face, and he sat down upon the steps and wiped his forehead with his pink handkerchief and fanned himself with his hat and tried to think what he should do next. 

 Presently a very angry man came out of the house. He had a revolver in one hand and a carving-knife in the other. 

 "What do you mean by insulting my wife?" he demanded. 

 "Was that your wife?" asked the Woggle-Bug, in meek astonishment. 

 "Of course it is my wife," answered the man. 

 "Oh, I didn't know," said the insect, rather humbled. "But I'll give you seven ninety-three for her. That's all she's worth, you know; for I saw it marked on the tag." 

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