Mrs. Bilton welcomed him warmly, and taking his torch from him first examined what she called the location of her feet, then gave it back to him and put her hand through his arm. "Now guide me to whatever it is has been substituted without my knowledge for that hotel," she said; and while Mr. Twist went back to the taxi to deal with her grips, she walked carefully toward the shanty on the expert's arm, expressing, in an immense number of words, the astonishment she felt at Mr. Twist's not having told her of the disappearance of the Cosmopolitan from her itinerary. The electrical expert tried to speak, but was drowned without further struggle. Anna-Rose, unable to listen any longer without answering to the insistent inquiries as to why Mr. Twist had kept her in the dark, raised her voice at last and called out, "But he wanted to--he wanted to all the time--you wouldn't listen--you wouldn't stop--" Mrs. Bilton did stop however when she got inside the shanty. Her tongue and her feet stopped dead together. The electrical expert had lit all the lanterns, and coming upon it in the darkness its lighted windows gave it a cheerful, welcoming look. But inside no amount of light and bunches of pink geraniums could conceal its discomforts, its dreadful smallness; besides, pink geraniums, which the twins were accustomed to regard as precious, as things brought up lovingly in pots, were nothing but weeds to Mrs. Bilton's experienced Californian eye. She stared round her in silence. Her sudden quiet fell on the twins with a great sense of refreshment. Standing in the doorway--for Mrs. Bilton and the electrical expert between them filled up most of the kitchen--they heaved a deep sigh. "And see how beautiful the stars are," whispered Anna-Felicitas in Anna-Rose's ear; she hadn't been able to see them before somehow, Mrs. Bilton's voice had so much ruffled the night. "Do you think she talks in her sleep?" Anna-Rose anxiously whispered back. But Mr. Twist, arriving with his hands full, was staggered to find Mrs. Bilton not talking. An icy fear seized his heart. She was going to refuse to stay with them. And she would be within her rights if she did, for certainly what she called her itinerary had promised her a first-rate hotel, in which she was to continue till a finished and comfortable house was stepped into. "I wish you'd say something," he said, plumping down the bags he was carrying on the kitchen floor. The twins from the doorway looked at him and then at each other in great surprise. Fancy _asking_ Mrs. Bilton to say something. "They would come," said Mr. Twist, resentfully, jerking his head toward the Annas in the doorway. "It's worse upstairs," he went on desperately as Mrs. Bilton still was dumb. "Worse upstairs?" cried the twins, as one woman. "It's perfect upstairs," said Anna-Felicitas. "It's like camping out without _being_ out," said Anna-Rose.