nt he had
received was sufficient to make him keep his seat in spite of his
traditions of Southern chivalry."

"That is all very well," I said, "but why did you insist upon
daughters--and especially two daughters? Why couldn't a wife alone
have taken him shopping?"

"There had to be daughters," said Jolnes, calmly. "If he had only a
wife, and she near his own age, he could have bluffed her into going
alone. If he had a young wife she would prefer to go alone. So there
you are."

"I'll admit that," I said; "but, now, why two daughters? And how, in
the name of all the prophets, did you guess that one was adopted when
he told you he had three?"

"Don't say guess," said Jolnes, with a touch of pride in his air;
"there is no such word in the lexicon of ratiocination. In Major
Ellison's buttonhole there was a carnation and a rosebud backed by a
geranium leaf. No woman ever combined a carnation and a rosebud into
a boutonniere. Close your eyes, Whatsup, and give the logic of your
imagination a chance. Cannot you see the lovely Adele fastening the
carnation to the lapel so that papa may be gay upon the street? And
then the romping Edith May dancing up with sisterly jealousy to add
her rosebud to the adornment?"

"And then," I cried, beginning to feel enthusiasm, "when he declared
that he had three daughters--"

"I could see," said Jolnes, "one in the background who added no
flower; and I knew that she must be--"

"Adopted!" I broke in. "I give you every credit; but how did you know
he was leaving for the South to-night?"

"In his breast pocket," said the great detective, "something large and
oval made a protuberance. Good liquor is scarce on trains, and it is a
long journey from New York to Fairfax County."

"Again, I must bow to you," I said. "And tell me this, so that my last
shred of doubt will be cleared away; why did you decide that he was
from Virginia?"

"It was very faint, I admit," answered Shamrock Jolnes, "but no
trained observer could have failed to detect the odour of mint in the
car."

XIX

THE LADY HIGHER UP

New York City, they said, was deserted; and that accounted, doubtless,
for the sounds carrying so far in the tranquil summer air. The breeze
was south-by-southwest; the hour was midnight; the theme was a bit of
feminine gossip by wireless mythology. Three hundred and sixty-five
feet above the heated asphalt the tiptoeing symbolic deity on
Manhattan pointed her vacillating arrow st