ilda?"

"Yes, what's the matter, Matilda?" asked Mary with great concern.

"Ma'am--ma'am"--staring wildly at Mary--"I--I don't know, ma'am."

"What, have you already forgotten what I told you about calling me
Mary!"

"Ma--Mary?" gasped Matilda blankly.

"Jack," said Mary in a low voice, "I said awhile ago that she seemed
queer."

"Where have you put your head, Matilda? Yes--Mary!--Mary!--Mary! Mary
De Peyster--Mrs. Jack De Peyster--my wedded wife--whom it cost me four
thirty-nine to make my own. Understand?"

"P-per-perfectly, Mr. Jack."

"Well, that's happy news. What's that you're carrying?"

"It's--ah--er--my breakfast," explained Matilda.

"Your breakfast!" exclaimed Jack. "What are you doing with it here?"

"I was--I was--er--was going to--to get it all ready to--to take up to
myself to-morrow."

Jack took the tray from Matilda's nerveless hands.

[Illustration: "WHAT'S THAT YOU'RE CARRYING?"]

"Sit down, Matilda," firmly pressing her into a chair. "Mary, have you
some salts in that bag."

"Yes, Jack." In an instant Mary had a bottle from her bag and was
holding it beneath Matilda's nose. "You'll be all right in just a
moment. Take it easy. The surprise must have been too much for you.
For it was a big surprise, wasn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Matilda, for the first time speaking with no
hesitancy.

"Matilda, it's almost provoking the way you ignore my request to call
me Mary."

"Ah--er--" staring wildly--"yes, Mary."

Jack moved to the wall near the door, where were several buttons.

"Mary, I'm going to ring for William--we'd better take him into this
thing straight off, or he may stumble on the fact that extra people
are in the house and call in the police."

At her crack in the pantry door, Mrs. De Peyster grew even more
apprehensive.

Jack and Mary cooed; Matilda sat all of a heap; and presently William
walked in. To her other emotions, Mrs. De Peyster had added a new
shock. For William the peerless--fit coachman for an emperor--William,
whom till that night she could not have imagined, had she imagined
about such things at all, other than as sleeping in a high collar and
with all his brass buttons snugly buttoned--William was coatless, and
collarless, and slouching from his mouth was an old pipe!

He came in with a haughty glower, for he had supposed the ring to
be Matilda's. But at sight of Jack and Mary his face went blank with
amazement.

"Why, why, Mr. Jack!" Hastily he