and a
perambulator by day."

Ronnie looked perplexed. "Why a bassinet?" he said.

"The _Infant_, you know."

"Oh--ah, yes, I see. Well, of course I wanted to introduce the Infant
properly to Dick Cameron, but he objected when I began taking it out of
its bag in the street. He suggested that it might take cold--it
certainly is a dank day. Also that there are so many by-laws and
regulations in Leipzig connected with things you may not do in the
streets, that probably if you took a 'cello out of its case and stood
admiring it in the midst of the crowded thoroughfare, you would get run
in by a policeman. Dick said: 'Arrest of the Infant of Prague in the
Streets of Leipzig' would make just the kind of sensational headline
beloved by newspapers. I realised that he was right. It would have
distressed Helen, besides being a most unfortunate way for her to hear
first of the Infant. Helen is a great stickler for respectability."

Aubrey Treherne's pale countenance turned a shade paler. His thin lips
curved into the semblance of a smile.

"Ah, yes," he said, "of course. Helen is a great stickler for
respectability. Well? So you gave up undressing your Infant in the
street?"

Again Ronnie's eager face took on a look of perplexity.

"I did not propose undressing it," he said.

"I only wanted to take it out of its bag."

"I see. Quite a simple matter. Well? Owing to our absurd police
regulations you were prevented from doing this. What happened next?"

"Dick suggested that we should go to his rooms. Arrived there he ceased
to take any interest in my 'cello, clapped me into a chair, and stuck a
beastly thermometer into my mouth."

"Doctors are such enthusiasts," murmured Aubrey Treherne. "They can
never let their own particular trade alone. I suppose he also felt your
pulse and looked at your tongue."

"Rather! Then he said I had no business to be walking about with a
temperature of 103. I was so much annoyed that I promptly smashed the
thermometer, and we had a fine chase after the quicksilver. You never
saw anything like it! It ran like a rabbit, in and out of the nooks and
corners of the chair, until at last it disappeared through a crack in
the floor; went to ground, you know. Doesn't Helen look well on
horseback?"

"Charming. I suppose you easily convinced your friend that his diagnosis
was rubbish?"

"Of course I did. I told him I had never felt better in my life. But I
drank the stuff he gave me, simply to s