Miss Almeria pondered. "It is hard to say!" she pronounced finally. "The method by which the information was obtained--but we will not speak of that!" she closed her eyes for a moment, as if to shut out an unlovely vision. "Miss Ross _is_ peculiar: there is no gainsaying that. She has always gone her own way, with no guidance--that I am aware of--beyond her own wishes. But she is a woman of character and education, and I cannot for a moment believe that matters are as--as we have heard them represented. Doubtless we shall know all in good time. Meanwhile--may I ask if you were contemplating the possibility of altering or adding to your item, Mr. Jordano?" Mr. Jordano fluttered perceptibly. "Not if it would appear in any way unsuitable to a lady--to ladies"--with a little bow to Miss Egeria, "whose exquisite refinement of taste is equal to their--ahem! shall I say, other characteristics? Not for worlds, Miss Bygood, if you advise against it. At the same time, if--if the information is to be--a--generally disseminated, it might--the official organ--it might be expected by the people--il Publico, you understand-tand-tand--I will do whatever you advise, Miss Bygood!" the poor gentleman concluded. It was heroic, though none of the three fully realized it. To relinquish such a "story," leave it to unofficial babblers and--Mr. Jordano feared--spiteful gossips, when it might be set down with gravity and ornamented with flowers of speech--yes, it was heroic. The two ladies thought it very nice of Mr. Jordano; but they thought no more than that, and Miss Almeria gave the _coup de grace_ with unfaltering hand. "It will be best, I am convinced," she said, "to leave the item as it stood before Mrs. Sharpe's entrance. I will say, her unseemly entrance. Your own instinctive delicacy is so well known, Mr. Jordano----" "Oh! grazier! grazier!" murmured Mr. Jordano, trying to bow gracefully, a difficult thing with a lady on either arm--"too much, Miss Almeria!" "So well known," Miss Almeria repeated, with a gracious bend of her own stately head, "that all Cyrus will appreciate your motive for abstaining from comment upon what we have heard. If it proves true, we shall know it soon enough; if false----" Miss Almeria's gesture was eloquent as well as dignified. "If false," cried Mr. Jordano,--they were now at Mr. Bygood's door, and the ladies withdrew their arms, enabling him to fling his cloak over his left shoulder with a noble gesture--"if false, it has no place in the columns of the _Cyrus Centinel_." CHAPTER VIII THE TRIVIAL ROUND