he said. "Not only are you not Mrs.
Bashford," he went on with the utmost good humor, "but you are a very
different person. I should explain that I represent the American State
Department, and that our government has been asked by the British
Embassy to find you and deliver a certain message to you."

"Oh, papa wants me to come home!" cried Alice. "It's droll, Constance,
that papa should have thought of making an affair of state of us. Dear
papa will always indulge me just so far, and then he becomes alarmed."

"He's certainly alarmed now!" laughed Raynor. "But the ambassador has
warned us to be most tactful and circumspect. You may not know that Sir
Arnold Seabring is on his way to this country on a confidential mission.
That, of course, is not for publication."

"Sir Arnold Seabring?" gasped Torrence.

"The father of the Honorable Miss Seabring," replied Raynor with an
elucidating nod toward Alice.

"But how--" I began.

"Mrs. Bashford, the widow of your uncle, is the Honorable Miss
Seabring's aunt. Is that quite correct?"

"It is all true," said Alice. "I am a fraud, an impostor. You might go
on and say that Mrs. Farnsworth is the wife of Sir Cecil Arrowsmith. But
all the guilt is mine. It was my idea to come here and play a little,
because I knew Aunt Alice wouldn't mind. She knew just what I meant to
do; really she did, Mr. Torrence! In fact, I have her written permission
to use the house, which I should have shown you if we had got in a
pinch. But it seemed so much more fun just to let matters take their
course. It's a pet theory of mine that life is a dull affair unless we
trust to luck a little. After my brother's death I was very unhappy and
had gone out East to visit Aunt Alice, who is a great roamer. I thought
it would be nice to stop here on the way home, just for a lark, without
telling papa, who was frantically cabling me to hurry back to England.
This isn't the first time I've played hide-and-seek with my family. I
was always doing that as a child; and if it hadn't been for my general
waywardness I should never have known you, Constance. Why, I shouldn't
have known you, gentlemen! It has all been so delightful!"

This naive confession amused Raynor greatly, but Torrence was seeing
nothing in it but a dangerous escapade.

"In the name of the Bainbridge Trust Company, I must notify you," he
began, "that by representing yourself as another person, entering into
possession of a large property----"