Max and Rudolph were waiting at the wharf for me. Their excellent arms and broad backs soon drove the light boat across the river. But once during the five or ten minutes of passage did I utter a word, and that word, while wholly involuntary and by no means addressed to my oarsmen, had the remarkable effect of making them row like fury for the remainder of the distance. Mr. Poopendyke was waiting for me in the courtyard. He was carrying a lantern, which he held rather close to my face as if looking for something he dreaded to see. "What the devil is the matter with you?" I demanded irascibly. "What's up? What are you doing out here with a lantern?" "I was rather anxious," he said, a note of relief in his voice. "I feared that something unexpected might have befallen you. Five minutes ago the--Mr. Pless called up on the telephone and left a message for you. It rather upset me, sir." "He did, eh? Well, what did he say?" "He merely commanded me to give you his compliments and to tell you to go to the devil. I told him that you would doubtless be at home a little later on and it would sound very much better if it came from him instead of from me. Whereupon he told me to accompany you, giving rather explicit directions. He appeared to be in a tremendous rage." I laughed heartily. "I must have got under his confounded skin after all." "I was a little worried, so I came out with the lantern. One never can tell. Did you come to blows?" "Blows? What puts that idea into your head?" "The Countess was listening on the extension wire while he was speaking to me. She thought it was you calling up and was eager to hear what had happened. It was she who put it into my head. She said you must have given his nose a jolly good pulling or something of the sort. I am extremely sorry, but she heard every word he said, even to the mildest damn." "It must have had a very familiar sound to her," I said sourly. "So she informed me." "Oh, you've seen her, eh?" "She came down to the secret door a few minutes ago and urged me to set out to meet you. She says she can hardly wait for the news. I was to send you upstairs at once." Confound him, he took that very instant to hold the lantern up to my face again, and caught me grinning like a Cheshire cat. I hurried to my room and brushed myself up a bit. On my bureau, in a glass of water, there was a white boutonniere, rather clumsily constructed and all ready to be pinned in the lapel of my coat. I confess to a blush. I wish Britton would not be so infernally arduous in his efforts to please me. The Countess gave a little sigh of relief when I dashed in upon her a few minutes later. She had it all out of me before I had quite recovered my breath after the climb upstairs. "And so it was I who spent all the money," she mused, with a far-away look in her eyes. "In trying to be a countess," said I boldly. She smiled. "Are you hungry?" "Delightfully," said I.