feel as though I had got back into the Middle Ages!"

"You forget, Lucy," he replied, "that I don't know what happened."

Again she fell silent. They sat staring at each other, and then
suddenly she leaned back in her chair and began to laugh. Once she
had started, burst after burst of merriment swept over her. "I try
to stay angry, Allan!" she gasped. "It seems as if I ought to. But,
honestly, it was perfectly absurd!"

"I am sure you'd much better laugh than cry," said he.

"I will tell you about it, Allan," the girl went on. "I know I shall
have to tell somebody, or I shall simply explode. You will have to
advise me about it, for I was never more bewildered in my life."

"Go ahead," said he. "Begin at the beginning."

"I told you how I met Waterman at his art gallery," said Lucy. "Mr.
David Alden took me, and the old man was so polite, and so
dignified--why, I never had the slightest idea! And then he wrote me
a little note--in his own hand, mind you--inviting me to be one of a
party for the first trip of the _Brunnhilde_. Of course, I thought it
was all right. I told you I was going, you know, and you didn't have
any objections either.

"I went down there, and the launch met me and took me on board, and
a steward took me down into that room and left me, and a second
later the old man himself came in. And he shut the door behind him
and locked it!