s here, Mr. Lightnut," she grumbled querulously; "but
_you_ understand!"

Understand! By Jove, yes--I thought I _did_! I could see that the fellow
was just sullen under the too free and easy assumptions of a guest from
whom little had been experienced in the way of an occasional douceur.
And dashed if I blamed him!

But I murmured some jolly rubbish, hoping every instant that Wilkes
would come and lead me away.

"That's the way with them all here, from the housekeeper down," she went
on gloomily. "They take advantage of the fact that the mistress of the
house is abroad and the master absorbed and busy." Her voice quickened
sharply: "Then do you think they care two pins about the authority of a
silly girl who has been allowed to grow up untrained and ignorant of the
first a b c of anything practical?"

I felt my face tingling.

"See here--Oh, dash it all!" I protested. "That's not _fair_, you know!"

"Fair?" She bit the word out of the air and just glared at me. "Why,
they know she's a _fool_!"

I opened my mouth two or three times; then swallowed helplessly and grew
red. Somehow, it came back to me--a time when I was a little boy and my
nurse had been so shocked when I said "shucks!" I remembered how that
night she read to me a tract about swear words and told me how when I
grew up to be a big man, I would have to choose whether I was ever going
to learn to swear or not. She said that if I didn't choose right, a day
would come when I would be--oh, _so_ sorry!

And now, dash it, the day had come and I knew that she was right! For I
_was_ sorry, by Jove!

CHAPTER XXIII

A MESSAGE AND A WARNING

"It's all right, miss," Wilkes reported; "at least, I hope so. Perkins
is with him--we've been trying to persuade him to have a bath and lie
down. But I don't know--"

He shook his head gloomily, then turned to me.

"If you will come with me, sir--" Then he added, and it seemed a
question: "You must have made a quick run, sir. Seems like only a few
minutes since we got Mr. Jack's 'phone message." His voice dropped:
"From the station house, you know."

"Eh--what's that?" I paused with my foot on the first tread of the
stairway. "Jack's 'phone message--from the station house?" I repeated
blankly. "What are you talking about?"

Wilkes coughed reproachfully. "Why, you know, sir, he told about being
arrested in front of the Kahoka Apartments. He mentioned that it was
about--h'm!" He stole a furtive backward g