the moment the house was quarantined, and got her out the areaway
or the coal hole! And now time was flying, and Aunt Selina had me
by the arm, and any moment I expected Bella to pounce on us
through the doorway and the whole situation to explode with a
bang.

It was after eleven before they were rational enough to discuss
ways and means, and, of course, the first thing suggested was
that we all adjourn below stairs and clean up after dinner. I
could have slain Max Reed for the notion, and the Mercer girls
for taking him up.

"Of course we will," they said in a duet. "What a lark!" And they
actually began to pin up their dinner gowns. It was Jim who
stopped that.

"Oh, look here, you people," he objected, "I'm not going to let
you do that. We'll get some servants in tomorrow. I'll go down
and put out the lights. There will be enough clean dishes for
breakfast."

It was lucky for me that they started a new discussion then and
there about who would get the breakfast. In the midst of the
excitement I slipped away to carry the news to Bella. She was
where I had left her, and she had made herself a cup of tea, and
was very much at home, which was natural.

"Do you know," she said ominously, "that you have been away for
two hours; and that I have gone through agonies of nervousness
for fear Jim Wilson would come down and think I came here to see