listen: I won't
have--"

But Anna-Felicitas was laughing, and her eyes had disappeared into two
funny little screwed-up eyelashy slits.

Mr. Twist stopped abruptly and glared at her. These Twinklers. That one
in there shaken with sobs, this one in here shaken with what she would
no doubt call quite the contrary. His conviction became suddenly final
that the office was the place for both the Annas. He and Mrs. Bilton
would do the waiting.

"I'll take this," he said, laying hold of the dish of cakes. "I'll send
Mrs. Bilton for the tea. Go into the office, Anna-Felicitas. Your sister
is there and wants you badly. I don't know," he added, as Li Koo pushed
the tea-tray through the serving window, "how it strikes you about
laughter, but it strikes me as sheer silly to laugh except at
something."

"Well, I was," said Anna-Felicitas, unscrewing her eyes and with gentle
firmness taking the plate of cakes from him and putting it on the tray.
"I was laughing at your swift conviction that the man out there is Mr.
Ridding. I don't know who he is but I know heaps of people he isn't, and
one of the principal ones is Mr. Ridding."

"I'm going to wait on him," said Mr. Twist, taking the tray.

"It would be most unsuitable," said Anna-Felicitas, taking it too.

"Let go," said Mr. Twist, pulling.

"Is this to be an unseemly wrangle?" inquired Anna-Felicitas mildly; and
her eyes began to screw up again.

"If you'll oblige me by going into the office," he said, having got the
tray, for Anna-Felicitas was never one to struggle, "Mrs. Bilton and me
will do the rest of the waiting for to-day."

He went out grasping the tray, and made for the verandah. His appearance
in this new role was greeted by the Germans with subdued
applause--subdued, because they felt Mr. Twist wasn't quite as cordial
to them as they had supposed he would be, and they were accordingly
being a little more cautious in their methods with him than they had
been at the beginning of the afternoon. He took no notice of them,
except that his ears turned red when he knocked against a chair and the
tray nearly fell out of his hands and they all cried out _Houp la_.
Damn them, thought Mr. Twist. _Houp la_ indeed.

In the farthest corner of the otherwise empty and very chilly verandah,
sitting alone and staring out at the stars, was a man. He was a young
man. He was also an attractive young man, with a thin brown face and
very bright blue twinkling eyes. The light fro