minutes. He went out to the sidewalk and gave an order to the chauffeur,
who still waited with the car. Returning to the mysterious apartment,
he sat by his guest and began to entertain him so well by his witty and
genial converse that the poor Bed Liner almost forgot the cold streets
from which he had been so recently and so singularly rescued. A servant
brought some tender cold fowl and tea biscuits and a glass of miraculous
wine; and Thomas felt the glamour of Arabia envelop him. Thus half an
hour sped quickly; and then the honk of the returned motor car at the
door suddenly drew the Grand Duke to his feet, with another soft
petition for a brief absence.

Two women, well muffled against the cold, were admitted at the front
door and suavely conducted by the master of the house down the hall
through another door to the left and into a smaller room, which was
screened and segregated from the larger front room by heavy, double
portieres. Here the furnishings were even more elegant and exquisitely
tasteful than in the other. On a gold-inlaid rosewood table were
scattered sheets of white paper and a queer, triangular instrument or
toy, apparently of gold, standing on little wheels.

The taller woman threw back her black veil and loosened her cloak. She
was fifty, with a wrinkled and sad face. The other, young and plump,
took a chair a little distance away and to the rear as a servant or an
attendant might have done.

"You sent for me, Professor Cherubusco," said the elder woman, wearily.
"I hope you have something more definite than usual to say. I've about
lost the little faith I had in your art. I would not have responded to
your call this evening if my sister had not insisted upon it."