, of all the--" he began, pushing his hat back. "Are you aware,"
he went on more calmly, "that there are only two rooms over that
kitchen, and that you and Mrs. Bilton will have to be all together in
one of them?"

"We don't mind that as long as you're in the other one," said Anna-Rose.

"Of course," suggested Anna-Felicitas, "if you were to happen to marry
Mrs. Bilton it would make a fairer division."

Mr. Twist's spectacles stared enormously at her.

"No, no," said Anna-Rose quickly. "Marriage is a sacred thing, and you
can't just marry so as to be more comfortable."

"I guess if I married Mrs. Bilton I'd be more uncomfortable," remarked
Mr. Twist with considerable dryness.

He seemed however to be quieted by the bare suggestion, for he fixed his
hat properly on his head and said, sobriety in his voice and manner,
"Come along, then. We'll get a taxi and anyway go out and have a look at
the rooms. But I shouldn't be surprised," he added, "if before I've done
with you you'll have driven me sheer out of my wits."

"Oh, _don't_ say that," said the twins together, with all and more of
their usual urbanity.

CHAPTER XXVI

By superhuman exertions and a lavish expenditure of money, the rooms Li
Koo was later on to inhabit were ready to be slept in by the time Mrs.
Bilton arrived. They were in an outbuilding at the back of the house,
and consisted of a living-room with a cooking-stove in it, a bedroom
behind it, and up a narrow and curly staircase a larger room running the
whole length and width of the shanty. This sounds spacious, but it
wasn't. The amount of length and width was small, and it was only just
possible to get three camp-beds into it and a washstand. The beds nearly
touched each other. Anna-Felicitas thought she and Anna-Rose were going
to be regrettably close to Mrs. Bilton in them, and again urged on Mr.
Twist's consideration the question of removing Mrs. Bilton from the room
by marriage; but Anna-Rose said it was all perfect, and that there was
lots of room, and she was sure Mrs. Bilton, used to the camp life so
extensively practised in America, would thoroughly enjoy herself.

They worked without stopping all the rest of the day at making the
little place habitable, nailing up some of the curtains intended for the
other house, unpacking cushions, and fetching in great bunches of the
pale pink and mauve geraniums that scrambled about everywhere in the
garden and hiding the worst places in th