ithout speaking.

"Bella," Jim said appealingly. And then I pinched his arm, and he drew
himself up and looked properly outraged.

"Bella," he said, coldly this time, "I can't imagine why you have put
yourself in this ridiculous position, but since you have--"

She turned on him in a fury.

"Put MYSELF in this position!"

She was frantic. "It's a plot, a wretched trick of yours, this
quarantine, to keep me here."

Jim gasped, but I gave him a warning glance, and he swallowed hard.

"On the contrary," he said, with maddening quiet, "I would be the last
person in the world to wish to perpetuate an indiscretion of yours. For
it was hardly discreet, was it, to visit a bachelor establishment alone
at ten o'clock at night? As far as my plotting to keep you here is
concerned, I assure you that nothing could be further from my mind. Our
paths were to be two parallel lines that never touch." He looked at me
for approval, and Bella was choking.

"You are worse that I ever thought you," she stormed. "I thought you
were only a--a fool. Now I know you--for a brute!"

Well, it ended by Jim's graciously permitting Bella to remain--there
being nothing else to do--and by his magnanimously agreeing to keep her
real identity from Aunt Selina and Mr. Harbison, and to break the news
of her presence to Anne and the rest. It created a sensation beside
which Anne's pearls faded away, although they came to the front again
soon enough.

Jim broke the news at once, gathering everybody but Harbison and Aunt
Selina in the upper hall. He was palpitatingly nervous, but he tried to
carry it off with a high hand.

"It's unfortunate," he said, looking around the circle of faces, each
one frozen with amazement, and just a suspicion, perhaps of incredulity.
"It's particularly unfortunate for her. You all know how high-strung
she is, and if the papers should get hold of it--well, we'll all have to
make it as easy as we can for her."

With Jim's eyes on them, they all swallowed the butler story without a
gulp. But Anne was indignant.

"It's like Bella," she snapped. "Well, she has made her bed and she can
lie on it. I'm sure I shan't make it for her. But if you want to know my
opinion, Mr. Harbison may be a fool, but you can't ram two Bellas, both
NEE Knowles, down Miss Caruthers' throat with a stick."

We had not thought of that before and every one looked blank. Finally,
however, Jim said Bella's middle name was Constantia, and we decided