"What!" I cried, "and parade hotel passages in search of the bath
looking like a clown out of a circus? No, thank you."

"You must make me a pattern then," said Agnes, "or I shan't know what
to do."

I can't make patterns, but I can, and I did, make plans of ground and
first-floor levels, a section and back and front elevations, all to a
scale of one inch to the foot exactly. I also made a full-size detail
of a toggle-and-cinch gear linking the upper storey to the lower.

"I think," Agnes said, "you had better come to the shop and choose the
material."

I thought so too. I wanted something gaudy that would make me feel
cheerful when I woke in the morning; but I also had another idea in
my mind. _Mangle-proof buttons_! Have the things been invented yet?

The archbishop who attended to us deprecated the idea of india-rubber
buttons.

"What kind are you now using?" he asked solicitously.

"At present, on No. 2," I said, "I am using splinters of
mother-of-pearl. Last week, with No. 1, I used a steel ring hanging
by its rim to a shred of linen, two safeties, and a hairpin found on
the floor."

I chose a flannel with broad green and violet stripes, and very large