Emmeline asked, puzzled.

“Oh, me, of course!” Marie Deschamps replied without a hesitation or a doubt, though she and I had come in last. And the others acquiesced, because Marie was on the topmost bough of all.

“Come along, then,” said Emmeline, relieved.

I made as if to follow them.

“No, Mr. Foster,” said Marie. “You just stay here, and don’t listen.”

The two women disappeared behind the porti�re, and a faint giggle, soon suppressed, came through the porti�re from Marie.

I obeyed her orders, but as I had not the advantage of knowing a single person in that outer room, I took myself off for a