, locked it, dropped the key into his pocket,
returned to his chair, and collapsed once more.

After a few moments he glanced down at the cat which he was still
clutching. A slight shiver passed over him, then, as he inspected it more
closely, over his features crept an ironical smile.

For the cat was not even a ci-devant cat; it had never been a cat; it
was only an imitation of a defunct one made out of floss and chenille,
like a teddy-bear; and he smiled at her scornfully and dangled it by its
black and white tail.

"Pooh," he panted; "I suppose even your bricks and vegetables and eggs
were cotillion favours full of confetti."

"They were," she admitted defiantly. "Which did not prevent their serving
their purposes."

"As what?"

"As symbols!"

"Symbols?" he retorted in derision.

"Yes, symbols! The three most ancient symbols of an insulted people's
fury--the egg, the turnip, and the cat."

"_Mala gallina, malum ovum_," he laughed, adjusting his sword and picking
several streamers of confetti from his tunic. "Did they hurl spot-eggs in
ancient Rome, fair maid?"

"They did; and cats--_ex necessitate rei_," she observed with composure.

"_Ex nihilo felis fit_--a cat-fit for nothing," he retorted, flippantly.

Half disdainfully she straightened out the slight disorder of her own
apparel, still breathing fast, and keeping tight hold of the bundle of
papers.

"How soon are you going to let me have them?" he asked good-humouredly.

"Never."

"I can't permit you to leave this room until you hand them to me."

"Then I shall never leave this room."

"You certainly shall not leave it until I have those papers."

"Then I'll remain here all my life!" she said defiantly.

"What do you expect to do when the people who live here return?"

She shrugged her pretty shoulders, and presently cast an involuntary and
uneasy glance around the room.

It was not a place to reassure any girl; gilt stars were pasted all over
walls and ceilings, where also a tinsel sun and moon appeared. The
constellations were interspersed with bats.

The remaining decorations consisted of a cozy corner, some pasteboard
trophies, red cotton velvet hangings, several plaster casts of human
hands, and a frieze of half-burnt cigarettes along the mantel-edge.

"Are you going to give me those papers?" he repeated, secretly amused.

"No."

"What do you expect to do with them?"

"Deliver them to Professor Elizabeth Challis, President o