ked inquiringly at Billings. He just sat
there kind of drooping, and shook his head. "I'm all in," he motioned
with his lips; and he wiped his forehead.

"Ah, gentlemen!" exclaimed the professor, coming back again, "what a
thing this little Chinese woman did for civilization when she gave the
world silk culture and invented the loom! No wonder the Chinese deified
her as a goddess."

"Goddess!" Billings swallowed hard. "And did these--h'm--garments belong
to the lady?"

The professor frowned at him in surprise. "Garments?"

"Them," said Billings in devilish questionable grammar, pointing to the
table. "They are pajamas, you know."

"Ha!" ejaculated the professor, holding them up. "So they are. You are
very observing, sir, very. Now, I had not noticed that at all; I was so
interested in the material itself--the wonderful silk of Si-Ling-Chi,
gentlemen. Ha! Indeed a rare privilege!"

By Jove! He stroked the stuff lightly, tenderly--as one likes to do a
little child's hair, don't you know.

"Beautiful, beautiful fabric," he sighed half to himself. "Only once
before have I seen a piece of it--but it was enough; I could never,
never forget." Something like a groan escaped him.

Billings angled his head toward me and tightly compressed one eye.

"H'm! Something in the petticoat line--eh, Professor?"

The professor's face wrinkled with the most matter-of-fact surprise.

"Petticoat?" he piped querulously. "You are forgetting that the
petticoat is a vestment unknown in China."

"Oh, in China! I was thinking of Paree," chuckled Billings, with a gay
air and another glance at me. Then his nerve withered under the
professor's blank stare, and he added hurriedly:

"H'm! So it was in China you saw the other piece of silk?"

The professor sighed profoundly. His reply came dreamily, regretfully:

"In the Purple Forbidden City; but I was not quick enough."

"Not quick enough?" Billings' echo was solicitous, sympathetic.

"It was among the palace treasures, the imperial properties--things
unhappily lost to the world and civilization. Ah, gentlemen, I erred; I
committed a fatal mistake; it has been a matter of deep mortification to
me often!" His head wagged somberly.

Billings looked a little embarrassed and rubbed his chin. "H'm!" he
coughed. "I guess we all slip a cog now and then. I know I've done
things myself I've been rather ash--"

"I erred, gentlemen," went on the professor, "in trusting most
unscientifically