e dock (waiting for the kindest pet of a
custom-house man) can be expressed in three words, _veni_, _vidi_,
_vici_. We came, we saw, we conquered--or anyhow took possession. It's
much the same thing. But Patsey! Her world has turned upside down, and
Jack and I are trying with all our wills and wits to turn it right side
up again. The Mystery Man is entangled in the scheme, too, in a weird
way. But I must begin at the beginning, or I shall get tangled myself.

Pat put on a smart Paris frock to land in, and meet "Larry": also hat.
She looked a dream, and felt one. Every woman did her best in the
clothes line (I don't mean a pun), but Mrs. Shuster transcended us all.
You can't _think_ what she was like in one of the new-fashioned dresses,
and a close-winged hat with a long stick-out thing behind exactly the
shape and size of a setting hen. You may imagine a description of Mrs.
Shuster irrelevant to Patsey Moore's fate and the entangling of the
Mystery Man: but you'll see in a few minutes that this is not so. Our
dear millionairess had been "making up" to Pat as well as to Jack and me
a good deal, for several days before landing; and you know how Jack and
I just _can't_ be rude to fellow human beings and take steps to shed
them, no matter how we are bored. I inherited this lack of _shaden
freude_ from dear father, and Jack has inherited it from me. At least,
he says he didn't mind how much he hurt pushing people until I softened
his heart beyond repair, and turned it into a sort of cushion for any
creature needing sanctuary.

When we saw the Dove of Peace (her nickname on board) preening herself
in clothes which would have made the Queen of Sheba "look like thirty
cents," I was weak enough to breathe the desired words of admiration.
"Gorgeous" was, I think, my adjective; and it was no fib.

The poor dear was pleased, and volunteered the information that she'd
"dressed up to kill" for a particular purpose.

"It's really for my protege's sake," she explained. "I marconied my
friend Mr. Caspian to meet me. You know, _the_ Caspian--Ed Caspian,
who's come into the Stanislaws' fortune. I think I've told you I know
him _very_ well?"

(She had indeed. If she'd told us once she'd told us a dozen times. I
longed to say so. But one doesn't say to Mrs. Shuster the things one
longs to say. She would go to bed and die if one did.)

"I've wired him to meet me at the boat, because I thought I'd interest
him in brave Peter Storm," she