ghed frankly.

Mrs. Gregory brought in a fable. "You'll find us all 'country mice'
here."

This time I was happy. "At least, then, there'll be no cat!" And this
caused us all to make little bows.

But the word "cat" fell into our talk as does a drop of some acid into
a chemical solution, instantly changing the whole to an unexpected new
color. The unexpected new color was, in this instance, merely what had
been latently lurking in the fluid of our consciousness all through and
now it suddenly came out.

Mrs. Gregory stared over the parapet at the harbor. "I wonder if anybody
has visited that steam yacht?"

"The Hermana?" I said. "She's waiting, I believe, for her owner, who is
enjoying himself very much on land." It was a strong temptation to add,
"enjoying himself with the cat," but I resisted it.

"Oh!" said Mrs. Gregory. "Possibly a friend of yours?"

"Even his name is unknown to me. But I gather that he may be coming to
Kings Port--to attend Mr. John Mayrant's wedding next Wednesday week."

I hadn't gathered this; but one is at times driven to improvising. I
wished so much to know if Juno was right about the engagement being
broken, and I looked hard at the ladies as my words fairly grazed the
"cat." This time I expected them to consult each other's expressions,
and such, indeed, was their immediate proceeding.

"The Wednesday following, you mean," Mrs. Weguelin corrected.

"Postponed again? Dear me!"

Mrs. Gregory spoke this time. "General Rieppe. Less well again, it
seems."

It would be like Juno to magnify a delay into a rupture. Then I had a
hilarious thought, which I instantly put to the ladies. "If the
poor General were to die completely, would the wedding be postponed
completely?"

"There would not be the slightest chance of that," Mrs. Gregory
declared. And then she pronounced a sentence that was truly oracular:
"She's coming at once to see for herself."

To which Mrs. Weguelin added with deeper condemnation than she had so
far employed at all: "There is a rumor that she is actually coming in an
automobile."

My silence upon these two remarks was the silence of great and sudden
interest; but it led Mrs. Weguelin St. Michael to do my perceptions
a slight injustice, and she had no intention that I should miss the
quality of her opinion regarding the vehicle in which Hortense was
reported to be travelling.

"Miss Rieppe has the extraordinary taste to come here in an automobile,"
said Mrs.