an opera. The costume was a creation of white satin,
the folds caught here and there with strings of pearls. There was a
single large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a
looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color. But
the full-leaved, expanded and matured rose became the vivid epitome and
illustration of the woman herself. A rope of pearls that hung down to
her waist added the touch of soft luster essential to preserve the
picture from the reproach of being too obvious an assault upon the
senses; Cleggett reflected that another woman might have gone too far
and spoiled it all by wearing diamonds. Lady Agatha always knew where
to stop.

"I have not been so hungry since I was in Holloway Jail," said Lady
Agatha. And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased Cleggett, who
loathed in a woman a finical affectation of indifference to food.

When Kuroki brought the coffee she took up her own story again. There
was little more to tell.

Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, it appeared, had mistaken their
instructions. Two nights after they had been engaged they had appeared
at Lady Agatha's apartment with the oblong box.

"The horrid creatures brought it into my sitting-room and laid it on
the floor before I could prevent them," said Lady Agatha.

"'What is this?' I asked them, in bewilderment.

"They replied that they had killed Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING TO
ORDERS, and had brought him to me.

"Orders!" I cried. "You had no such orders." Elmer, who lived on the
same floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out for an
airing. I was distracted. I did not know what to do. "Your orders," I
said, "were to--to----"

She broke off. "What was it that Elmer told them to do, and what was
it that they did?" she mused, perplexed. She called Elmer into the
cabin.

"Elmer," she said, "exactly what was it that you told your friends to
do to him? And what was it that they did? I can never remember the
words."

"Poke him," said Elmer, addressing Cleggett. "I tells these ginks to
poke him. But these ginks tells th' little dame here they t'inks I has
said to croak him. So they goes an' croaks him. D' youse get me?"

Being assured that they got him, Elmer downheartedly withdrew.

"At any rate," continued Lady Agatha, "there was that terrible box upon
my sitting-room floor, and there were those two degraded wretches. The
callous beasts stood above the box apparently qu