away! So I have brought down an omelette!"

"Omelette!" muttered Leroux, advancing toward the door; "you
have--er--brought an omelette! I understand--yes; you have brought an
omelette? Er--that is very good of you."

He hesitated when about to open the outer door, raising his hands to his
dishevelled hair and unshaven chin. The flap of the letter-box dropped;
and the girl outside could be heard stifling her laughter.

"You must think me--er--very rude," began Leroux; "I mean--not to open
the door. But"...

"I quite understand," concluded the voice of the unseen one. "You are a
most untidy object! And I shall tell Mira DIRECTLY she returns that she
has no right to leave you alone like this! Now I am going to hurry back
upstairs; so you may appear safely. Don't let the omelette get cold.
Good night!"

"No, certainly I shall not!" cried Leroux. "So good of you--I--er--do
like omelette.... Good night!"

Calmly he returned to his writing-table, where, in the pursuit of the
elusive character whose exploits he was chronicling and who had brought
him fame and wealth, he forgot in the same moment Helen Cumberly and the
omelette.

The table-clock ticked merrily on;
SCRATCH--SCRATCH--SPLUTTER--SCRATCH--went Henry Leroux's pen; for this
up-to-date litterateur, essayist by inclination, creator of "Martin