ough the open window of the drawing-room. She thought she saw
a flicker within. She looked again. She could not be mistaken. Then she
noticed that all the dust sheets had been removed from the furniture, that
the carpet had been laid, that a table had been set for tea, that there
were flowers and china and a teapot and bread-and-butter and a kettle and a
spirit-lamp on the table. The flicker was the flicker of the blue flame of
the spirit-lamp. The kettle over it was puffing out steam.

Audrey exclaimed, within herself:

"Aguilar!"

She had caught him at last. There were two cups and saucers--the best
ancient blue-and-white china, out of the glass-fronted china cupboard in
that very room! The celibate Aguilar, never known to consort with anybody
at all, was clearly about to entertain someone to tea, and the aspect of
things showed that he meant to do it very well. True, there was no cake,
but the bread-and-butter was expertly cut and attractively arranged. Audrey
felt sure that she was on the track of Aguilar's double life, and that a
woman was concerned therein. She was angry, but she was also enormously
amused and uplifted. She no longer cared the least bit about the imminent
danger threatening her incognito. Her sole desire was to entrap Aguilar,
and with deep joy she pictured his face when he should come into the room
with his friend and find the mistress of the house already installed.

"I think we had better go in here, darling," she said to Madame Piriac,
with her hand on the French window. "There is no other entrance."

Madame Piriac looked at her.

"_Eh bien!_ It is your country, not mine. You know the habits. I follow
you," said Madame Piriac calmly. "After all, my dear little Audrey ought
to be delighted to see me. I have several times told her that I should
come. All the same, I expected to announce myself.... What a charming
room! So this is the English provinces!"

The room was certainly agreeable to the eye. And Audrey seemed to see it
afresh, to see it for the first time in her life. And she thought: "Can
this be the shabby old drawing-room that I hated so?"

The kettle continued to puff vigorously.

"If they don't come soon," said Audrey, "the water will be all boiled away
and the kettle burnt. Suppose we make the tea?"

Madame Piriac raised her eyebrows.

"It is your country," she repeated. "That appears to be singular, but I
have not the English habits."

And she sat down, smiling.

Aud