I broke in rashly. "If you please, Mr. Titus, be good enough to keep your temper. I have no desire to appear harsh and arbitrary, but I can see that it is necessary to speak plainly. There isn't anything in the world I will not do to help you and the Countess in this unfortunate business, Mrs. Titus. I hope you believe me when I say as much. I am her friend; I want to be yours if you will let me. But I reserve the right to say what shall be and what shall not be done as long as you are under my roof. Just a moment, Mr. Titus! I think we are quite agreed that your sister is to depart from here on the fourteenth of the month. I am to be her escort, so to speak, for a considerable distance, in company with Mr. Bangs. Well, it must be clearly understood that not one of you is to show his or her face outside these walls until after that journey is over. That's plain-speaking, isn't it?" "I shall go where I please, and I'll go to the town to-day--" roared Colingraft, getting no farther for the reason that his mother, seeing that I was desperately in earnest, gave vent to a little cry of alarm and clutched her big son by the shoulder. She begged him to listen to reason! "Reason!" he gasped. "If you--or any of you--put a foot outside these walls," I declared, "you will not be allowed to re-enter. That's flat!" "By cricky!" fell in fervent admiration from the lips of Jasper, Jr. I glanced at his beaming, astonished face. He positively was grinning! "Good for you! You're a wonder, Mr. Smart! By cricky! And you're _dead right_. We're darn fools!" "Jasper!" gasped Mrs. Titus. "Good for you, Jasper!" I cried warmly, and took the hand he proffered. "Colingraft, please take me to my room," murmured the mother. "I--I feel faint. Send for Aline. Ask Mr. Bangs to come to me at once." I bowed stiffly. "I am sorry, Mrs. Titus, to have been so harsh, so assertive--" She held up both hands. "I never was so spoken to in all my life, Mr. Smart. I shall not forget it to my dying day." She walked away from me, her pretty head held high and her chin suspiciously aquiver. Colingraft hastened after her, but not without giving me a stare in which rage and wonder struggled for the mastery. I ran my hand over my moist brow. "Gee!" said Jasper, Jr. "You've corked her all right, all right." He followed me into the study and I couldn't get rid of him for hours. Later in the forenoon the Countess, with a queer little smile on her lips, told me that her mother considered me the most wonderful, the most forceful character she had ever encountered. I brightened up at that. But Colingraft was not yet through with me. CHAPTER XVII I SEE TO THE BOTTOM OF THINGS