." The man eyed them with surprise but took their coats and hats.
"We are expected. Please announce us immediately."

Deering followed him bewilderedly into the drawing-room and planted
himself close to the door.

"Assurance, my dear boy, conquers all things," Hood declaimed. "This
stuff looks like real Chippendale, and the rugs seem to be genuine." He
sniffed contemptuously as he posed before a long mirror for a final
inspection of his raiment. "It always pains me to detect the odor of
boiled vegetables when I enter a strange house. Architects tell me that
it is almost impossible to prevent----"

A woman's figure flashed in the mirror beside him, and he whirled round
and bowed from the hips.

"I trust you are not so lacking in the sense of hospitality that you find
yourself considering means of ejecting us. My comrade and I are weary
from a long journey."

Turning quickly, her gaze fell upon Deering, who was stealing on tiptoe
toward the door.

"Halt!" commanded Hood.

Deering paused and sheepishly faced his hostess.

She was a small, trim, graceful woman, of the type that greets middle
life smilingly and with no fear of what may lie beyond. Her dark hair had
whitened, but her rosy cheeks belied its insinuations. She viewed Deering
with frank curiosity, but with no indication of alarm. She was not a
woman one would consciously annoy, and Deering's face burned as he felt
her eyes inspecting him from head to foot. He had never before been so
heartily ashamed of himself; once out of this scrape, he meant to escape
from Hood and lead a circumspect, orderly life.

"Which is Hood and which is Tuck?" the woman asked with a faint smile.

"The friar is the gentleman standing on one foot at your right," Hood
answered. "Conscious of my unworthiness, I plead guilty to being
Hood--Hood the hobo delectable, the tramp incomprehensible!"

"Incomprehensible," she repeated; "you strike me as altogether obvious."

"You never made a greater mistake," Hood returned with asperity. "But the
question that now agitates us is simply this: do we eat or do we not?"

Deering looked longingly at a chair with which he felt strongly impelled
to brain his suave, unruffled companion. Hood apparently was hardened to
such encounters, and stood his ground unflinchingly. All Deering's
instincts of chivalry were roused by the little woman, who had every
reason for turning them out of doors. He resolved to make it easy for her
to do so.

"I