He looked at her with an expression that made a verbal reply to this
suggestion altogether unnecessary.

"Nurse says that Tootles has forgotten the real Roxbury," she went on,
after a moment. "See how cleverly you have played the part."

Still he stared moodily, unconvinced, at the roadway ahead. They were
driving in the Haupt Allee.

"I hope I haven't got Roxbury into trouble by that interview I gave out
concerning the new method of fire-proofing woodwork in office buildings
and hotels. It occurred to me afterward that he is violently opposed to
the system. I advocated it. He'll have a--I might say, a devil of a time
explaining his change of front."

As a matter of fact, when Medcroft, hiding in London, saw the reproduced
interview in the "Times," together with editorial comments upon the
extraordinary attitude of a supposedly conservative Englishman of
recognised ability, he was tried almost beyond endurance. For the next
two or three days the newspapers printed caustic contributions from
fellow architects and builders, in each of which the luckless Medcroft
was taken to task for advocating an impractical and fatuous New York
hobby in the way of construction,--something that staid old London would
not even tolerate or discuss. The social chroniclings of the Medcrofts
in Vienna, as despatched by the correspondents, offset this unhappy
"bull" to some extent, in so far as Medcroft's peace of mind was
concerned, but nothing could have drawn attention to the fact that he
was not in London at that particular time so decisively as the Vienna
interview and its undefended front. Even his shrewdest enemy could not
have suspected Medcroft of a patience which would permit him to sit