t protest.

"I really do not think it would be quite according to the rules of
etiquette which prevail in the central districts," he cried, "for a lady
to spend the night in the butler's pantry of a comparative stranger,
even when accompanied by her husband. It might give rise to talk in the
square, and--"

"The butler's pantry, sir!" exclaimed Mr. Sagittarius. "Explain
yourself, I beg."

"The telescope is there, and--"

"I have passed beyond the reach of etiquette," said Madame, looking
considerably like Joan of Arc and other well-known heroines. "My
duty lies plain before me. Of myself I should not have selected the
Zoological Gardens and the butler's pantry of a comparative stranger as
places in which to pass the night, even when accompanied by my husband.
But my conscience--_mens conscium recto_--guides me and I will not
resist it. I will assume my _neglige_ and bonnet and will be with you in
a moment."

So saying she majestically quitted the apartment.

The Prophet fell down upon the maroon sofa like a man smitten with
paralysis. He felt suddenly old, and very weak. He tried to think, to
consider how he could explain Madame Sagittarius to his grandmother--for
she must surely now become aware of the presence of strangers in her
pretty home--how he could arrange matters with Mr. Ferdinand, how he
could apologise to a lady whom he had never yet seen for appearing
at her house with two uninvited guests, how he could get rid of the
Sagittariuses when the horrible night watch should be at an end and the
frigid winter dawn be near. But his mind refused to work. His brain was
a blank, containing nothing except, perhaps, a vague desire for
sudden death. Mr. Sagittarius did not disturb his contemplation of
the inevitable. Indeed, that gentleman also seemed meditative, and the
silence lasted until the reappearance of Madame, in a brown robe--of a
slightly tea-gown type--trimmed with green chiffon and coffee-coloured
lace, a black bonnet adorned with about a score of imitation plums
made in some highly-glazed material, a heavy cloak lined with priceless
rabbit-skins, and the outdoor boots.

If the Prophet had found the journey to the Mouse a painful experience,
what can be said of his feelings during the journey from that noble
stream? Long afterwards he recalled his state of mind during the
tramp across the Common among the broken crockery, the dust-heaps, the
decaying vegetables and the occasional lurking rats, the