would think better of me.

"Telephone call, sir."

I followed the boy to the booth in a rage that any one should disturb my
gloomy reflections.

"Mr. Singleton? Oh! This is Alice speaking----"

I clutched the shelf for support. Not only was it Alice speaking, but in
the kindest voice imaginable. My anger passed, but my amazement at Alice
and all her ways blinded me. If she had suddenly stepped through the
wall, my surprise could not have been greater.

"You told me the Thackeray was your usual refuge in town, so I thought
I'd try it. Are you very, very cross? I'm sorry, really I am--Bob!"

The "Bob" was added lingeringly, propitiatingly. Huddled in the booth, I
doubted my senses--wondering indeed whether Alice hadn't a double--even
whether I hadn't dreamed everything that had occurred at Barton.

"I _wanted_ to speak to you ever so much at the theatre, but I couldn't
very well without introducing you to Sir Cecil, and I wasn't ready to do
that. It might have caused complications."

If anything could have multiplied the existing complications, I was
anxious to know what they were; but her voice was so gentle, so wholly
amiable, that I restrained an impulse to demand explanations.

"Are you on earth or are you speaking from paradise?" I asked.

"Oh, we're in a very nice house, Constance and I; and we're just about
having a little supper. I wish you were here, but that can't be
arranged. No; really it can't! We shall be motoring back to Barton
to-morrow and hope you can join us. Let us have luncheon and motor up
together."

When I suggested that I call for them she laughed gayly.

"That would be telling things! And we mustn't spoil everything when
everything is going so beautifully."

Remembering the man I had locked up in the tool-house and the
explanations I should have to make sooner or later to the unimaginative
Torrence, I wasn't wholly convinced of the general beauty of the
prospect.

"Montani was in the theatre," I suggested.

Her laughter rippled merrily over the wire. "Oh, he tried to follow us
in a taxi! We had a great time throwing him off in the park. I'm not
sure he isn't sitting on the curb right now watching the house
ungraciously."

"You have the fan with you; Montani jumped right out of his seat when
you opened it in the theatre."

This she received with more laughter; Montani amused her immensely, she
said. She wasn't in the least afraid of him. Returning to the matter of
the luncheo