went slowly away.

Thereafter we took counsel together.

As a result, it was decided that we should fold the booth -it
shut up like a screen- and convey it, puppets and all, a little
way into the wood. It was early yet, but some people would be
passing along the road, and we were not yet ready to combat the
curiosity that the appearance of a Punch and Judy show would be
sure to arouse. That done, she would lie close in the wood
with Toby, while I made off home and changed.

As I started off, after settling her in the bracken, I heard the
village clock strike the half-hour. Half-past seven. I gained
the house unobserved. No one was abroad except the servants, but
I heard Daphne singing in the bathroom.

I had worn the Pierrot dress two years ago at a fancy-dress ball.

There it lay with its mask at the bottom of the wardrobe. The
change was soon completed, and I stood up a proper Folly, from
the skull cap upon my crown to the pumps upon my feet. It took
some time to find the nose, but luck was with me, and at last I
ran it to earth in an old collar-box. Truly an appalling
article, it stuck straight out from my face like a fat, fiery
peg, but between that and the mask, my disguise would defy
detection.

Suddenly I had a brilliant idea. Sitting down, I scribbled a
note to Daphne to the effect that, owing to a sleepless night,