disquietude of the fair gathering. "If this is merely a joke on the part
of the Associated Shades, it is a mighty poor one, and I think it is time
it should cease."

"Oh, for an axe!" moaned Elizabeth, again.

"Excuse me, your Majesty," put in Xanthippe. "You said that before, and I
must say it is getting tiresome. You couldn't do anything with an axe.
Suppose you had one. What earthly good would it do you, who were
accustomed to doing all your killing by proxy? I don't believe, if you had
the unmannerly person who slammed the door in your face lying prostrate
upon the billiard-table here, you could hit him a square blow in the neck
if you had a hundred axes. Delilah might as well cry for her scissors, for
all the good it would do us in our predicament. If Cleopatra had her asp
with her it might be more to the purpose. One deadly little snake like
that let loose on the upper deck would doubtless drive these boors into
the sea, and even then our condition would not be bettered, for there
isn't any of us that can sail a boat. There isn't an old salt among us."

"Too bad Mrs. Lot isn't along," giggled Marguerite de Valois, whose Gallic
spirits were by no means overshadowed by the unhappy predicament in which
she found herself.

"I'm here," piped up Mrs. Lot. "But I'm not that kind of a salt."

"I am present," said Mrs. Noah. "Though why I ever came I don't know, for
I vowed the minute I set my foot on Ararat that dry land was good enough
for me, and that I'd never step aboard another boat as long as I lived.
If, however, now that I am here, I can give you the benefit of my nautical
experience, you are all perfectly welcome to it."