"Whether the leader of the orchestra died from drowning by soup,
or from the shock to his professional vanity, or was scalded to
death, the doctors were never wholly able to agree. Monsieur
Aristide Saucourt, who now lives in complete retirement, always
inclined to the drowning theory."




THE QUEST



An unwonted peace hung over the Villa Elsinore, broken, however,
at frequent intervals, by clamorous lamentations suggestive of
bewildered bereavement. The Momebys had lost their infant child;
hence the peace which its absence entailed; they were looking for
it in wild, undisciplined fashion, giving tongue the whole time,
which accounted for the outcry which swept through house and
garden whenever they returned to try the home coverts anew.
Clovis, who was temporarily and unwillingly a paying guest at the
villa, had been dozing in a hammock at the far end of the garden
when Mrs. Momeby had broken the news to him.

"We've lost Baby," she screamed.

"Do you mean that it's dead, or stampeded, or that you staked it
at cards and lost it that way?" asked Clovis lazily.

"He was toddling about quite happily on the lawn," said Mrs.