entially
philosophical as Count Bunker. His equanimity was most marvelously
restored by a single jugful of hot water, and by the time he came to
survey his blue lapels in the mirror the completest confidence shone in
his humorous eyes.

"How deuced pleased she'll be to find I'm a white man after all," he
reflected. "Supposing I'd really turned out a replica of that unshaved
heathen on the wall--poor girl, what a dull evening she'd have spent!
Perhaps I'd better break the news gently for the chaperon's sake, but
once we get her of to bed I rather fancy the fair Julia and I will smile
together over my dear uncle's dressing-gown!"

And in this humor he strode forth to conquer.

CHAPTER XXIX

Count Bunker could not but observe that Miss Wallingford's eyes
expressed more surprise than pleasure when he entered the drawing-room,
and he was confirmed in his resolution to let his true character appear
but gradually. Afterwards he could not congratulate himself too heartily
on this prudent decision.

"I fear," he said, "that I am late." (It was in fact half-past six by
now.) "I have been searching through my wardrobe to find some nether
garments at all appropriate to the overall--if I may so term it--which
you were kind enough to lay out for me. But I found mustard of that
particular shade so hard to match that I finally decided in favor of
this more conventional habit. I trust you don't mind?"

Both the ladies, though evidently disappointed, excused him with much
kindness, and Miss Minchell alluded directly to his blue lapels as
evidence that even now he held himself somewhat aloof from strict
orthodoxy.

"May we see any allusion to your uncle, the late Count Bunker, in his
choice of color?" she asked in a reverently hushed voice.

"Yes," replied the Count readily; "my aunt's stockings were of that
hue."

From the startled glances of the two ladies it became plain that the
late Count Bunker had died a bachelor.

"My other aunt," he exclaimed unabashed; yet nevertheless it was with
decided pleasure that he heard dinner announced immediately afterwards.

"They seem to know something about my uncle," he said to himself. "I
must glean a few particulars too."

A horrible fear lest his namesake might have dined solely upon herbs,
and himself be expected to follow his example, was pleasantly dissipated
by a glance at the menu; but he confessed to a sinking of his heart when
he observed merely a tumbler beside his ow