"Where is she?" "I think she's out bicycling, madam." "Bicycling?" The inquiry leapt from five mouths simultaneously. "Yes, madam. She sent for me and asked if I could find 'er a lady's bicycle, an' Greenaway was very 'appy to lend 'er 'ers, madam. An' Fitch pumped up the tires, an' she went off about 'alf-past eight, madam." We stared at one another in bewilderment. "Did she say where she was going?" said Berry. "No, sir." "All right, Falcon." The butler bowed and withdrew. Amid the chorus of astonished exclamation, Berry held up his hand. "It's very simple," he said. "She's unhinged." "Rubbish," said his wife. "The disappearance of Nobby, followed by the loss of her necklace, has preyed upon her mind. Regardless alike of my feelings and of the canons of good taste, she rises at an hour which is almost blasphemous and goes forth unreasonably to indulge in the most hellish form of exercise ever invented. What further evidence do we need? By this time she has probably detached the lamp from the velocipede and is walking about, saying she's Florence Nightingale." "Idiot," said Daphne. "Not yet," said her husband, "but I can feel it coming on." He cast an eye downward and shivered. "I feared as much. My left leg is all unbuttoned." "For goodness' sake," said his wife, "don't sit there drivelling----" "Sorry," said Berry, "but I haven't got a clean bib left. This laundry strike----" "I said 'drivelling,' not 'dribbling.' You know I did. And what are we wasting time for? Let's do something--anything." "Right-oh," said her husband. "What about giving the bread some birds?" And with that he picked up a loaf and deliberately pitched it out of the window on to the terrace. The fact that the casement was not open until after the cast, made his behaviour the more outrageous. The very wantonness of the act, however, had the excellent effect of breaking the spell of melancholy under which we were labouring. In a moment all was confusion. Jill burst into shrieks of laughter; Jonah, who had been immersed in _The Times_, cursed his cousin for the shock to his nerves; in a shaking voice Daphne assured the butler, whom the crash had brought running, that it was "All right, Falcon; Major Pleydell thought the window was open"; and the delinquent himself was loudly clamouring to be told whether he had won the slop-pail outright or had only got to keep it clean for one year.