."

It now need hardly be added that the said opinion was not only entirely
satisfactory, but also very sweetly expressed.

CHAPTER XIII

OVER THE TEA AND THE TOAST

The next morning there were, at least, three eventful breakfasts
"partaken of," as it was once the fashion to say; one at "The
Wilderness," one at the Savoy, and one at the Kyneston town house in
Prince's Gate.

When Professor Marmion came down he was a little late, for he had done a
long night's work, finishing his lecture-notes to his own satisfaction,
or, at least, as nearly as he could get there. Like all good workers, he
was never quite satisfied with what he did. When the maid had closed the
door of the breakfast-room, he looked across the table at his daughter
with a twinkle in his eyes, and said:

"Niti, before Lord Leighton left last night he had a talk with me, and
you were partly the subject of it."

"And who might have been the other part of the subject, Dad?" she asked,
with excellently simulated composure.

"That, Niti," he replied slowly, "I expect you know quite as well as I
do. I am inclined to consider myself the victim of something very like a
conspiracy."

"I think you are quite right, Dad," she replied, with perfect calmness.
"But the chief conspirators were the Fates themselves. We others only
did as we had to do. When you have solved that problem of N to the
fourth, I think you will see that we could really have done nothing
else, because, if you once crossed the border-line--the horizon which
Professor Cayley spoke of, I mean--you ought to be on speaking terms
with them."

Before he replied to this somewhat searching remark, the man who _had_
crossed the horizon emptied his coffee cup, and set it down in the
saucer with a perceptible rattle. Then he said more slowly than before:

"My dear Niti, there are other mysteries than N to the fourth. I only
wish now to confess frankly to you that I have tried to solve one of
them, perhaps the greatest of all, and ignominiously failed. I learnt a
great deal last night from a young man to whom I thought I could have
taught anything, and I got up this morning in a distinctly chastened
frame of mind; and so, to make a long story short, if you like to drive
into town and bring Commander Merrill back to lunch, I shall be very
pleased to have a chat with him afterwards."

The next moment Nitocris was on the other side of the table, with her
arm round her father's shoulders. S