ith your own home close by. I'll tell you something. We
were dancing at Claridge's last night, but I suppose you'd gone to bed."

"The dickens you were!" said he. "By the way, you might instruct one of
your butlers to telephone to the hotel for my things and have the bill
paid."

"So you'll sleep here to-night?" said she, archly.

"If there's room," said he. "Anyway you've arranged all my clothes with
the most entrancing harmony and precision."

"Oh!" Eve exclaimed, in a tone suddenly changed. "That was Miss
Warburton more than me. She took an hour off from Charlie this morning
in order to do it."

Then Mr. Prohack observed his wife's face crumble to pieces, and she
moved aside from him, sat down and began to cry.

"Now what next? What next?" he demanded with impatient amiability, for
he was completely at a loss to keep pace with the twistings of her mind.

"Arthur, why did you deceive me about that girl? How could you do it? I
hadn't the slightest idea it was M--miss W--instock. I can't make you
out sometimes, Arthur--really I can't!"

The fellow had honestly forgotten that he had in fact grossly deceived
his wife to the point of planting Mimi Winstock upon her as somebody
else. He had been nourishing imaginary and absurd grievances against Eve
for many hours, but her grievance against himself was genuine enough and
large enough. No wonder she could not make him out. He could not make
himself out. His conscience awoke within him and became exceedingly
unpleasant. But being a bad man he laughed somewhat coarsely.

"Oh!" he said. "That was only a bit of a joke. But how did you find out,
you silly child?"

"Ozzie saw her yesterday. He knew her. You can't imagine how awkward it
was. Naturally I had to laugh it off. But I cried half the night."

"But why? What did it matter? Ozzie's one of the family. The girl's not
at all a bad sort, and I did it for her sake."

Eve dried her eyes and looked up at him reproachfully with wet cheeks.

"When I think," said she, "that that girl might so easily have killed me
in that accident! And it would have been all her fault. And then where
would you have been without me? Where _would_ you have been? You'd never
have got over it. Never, never! You simply don't know what you'd be if
you hadn't got me to look after you! And you bring her into the house
under a false name, and you call it a joke! No, Arthur. Frankly I
couldn't have believed it of you."

Mr. Prohack was affecte