chambermaids were looking on from a near-by turn. "Don't mention that
creature's name. Just think what she's got us into. He isn't her
husband. Alfred, telephone for tickets on to-night's train. To-morrow
will be too late. I won't stay here another minute. Everybody in the
hotel is talking. We'll all be arrested."

But Mr. Rodney, for once, was the head of the family. He faced her
sternly.

"Go to your rooms, both of you. We'll stay here until this thing is
ended. I don't give a hang what she's done, I'm not going to desert
her."

"But--but he isn't her husband," gasped Mrs. Rodney, struck dumb by this
amazing rebellion.

"But she's your cousin, isn't she, madam?" he retorted with fierce
irony.

"I disown her!" wailed his wife, _sans raison_.

"Go to your rooms!" stormed pudgy Mr. Rodney. Then, as they slunk away,
he turned to the approving Odell-Carney, sticking out his chest a trifle
in his new-found authority. "I say, Carney, what's to be done next?"

The other looked at him for a moment as if in doubt. Then his face
cleared, and he took the little man's arm in his.

"We'll have a drink first and then see," he said.