hich he had
learned of Van Roon, when that ill-fated genius was in Chelsea, Mac had
caught the salient curves and angles of Mrs. Carville as she stooped
over her _scaldino_, had caught to a surprising degree the sombre
expression of her face and the tigerish energy of her crouched body. I
studied it with great pleasure for a moment, and then it recurred to me
that he had not been with us at the window. I say recurred, though I had
known it all along, and my ejaculation, for that matter, was but a sign
of triumph over catching him at the same game of peeping-Tom that we had
been playing in the room below. Yet so quickly and over-lappingly do our
minds work that at the same moment I had no less than three blurred
emotions. I was pleased to find my friend was guilty, I was pleased with
the sketch, yet puzzled to know how he had come to make it. Suddenly I
saw light.

"You were on the stairs?" I said, and pointed with the paper over my
shoulder. He nodded.

"Happened to look out," he remarked, setting his cup down.

It is my custom to risk a good deal sometimes by uttering thoughts which
my friends are free to disown. They may not be quite honest in this, but
none the less, according to the social contract, they are free to
disown. So, in this case, when I said, "I wonder if they are really
married," both of these generous souls repudiated the suggestion at
once.

"But you must admit we have some reason for suspicion," I went on,
looking into my cup. "Of course, I am not speaking now as a
gentleman----"

"No," said Bill, maliciously. I continued.

"----but as an investigator into the causes of psychological phenomena.
Placing them upon the dissecting-table, so to speak, and probing with
the forceps of observation and the needle of wit----"

"Rubbish!" snorted the etcher rudely, turning to his plates.

"But, my dear chap!" I urged, "let me explain. I happened to be reading
Balzac last night, that is all. You know how stimulating he is, and how
readily one falls in with his plans for forming a complete Science of
Applied Biology of the human race. Put it another way if you like. What
are the facts? _Item_: A grass widow, obviously foreign, presumably
Italian. _Item_: Two children indisputably American, one fair, the other
dark. _Item_: A _scaldino_. _Item_: Male clothing on the line. _Item_: A
reserved attitude toward her intelligent and cultivated neighbours.
_Item_: Ignorance of the well-known fact that the Indian