"I want a straight answer to a straight question," said Mr. Twist, his great spectacles glaring anxiously at the lawyer who again nodded. "Go on," he said, as Mr. Twist paused. "What I want to know is," burst out Mr. Twist, "what the hell--" The lawyer put up a hand. "One moment, Mr. Twist," he said. "Sorry to interrupt--" And he got up quickly, and went to a door in the partition between his office and his clerks' room. "You may go out to lunch now," he said, opening it a crack. He then shut it, and came back to his seat at the table. "Yes, Mr. Twist?" he said, settling down again. "You were inquiring what the hell--?" "Well, I was about to," said Mr. Twist, suddenly soothed, "but you're so calm--" "Of course I'm calm. I'm a quietly married man." "I don't see what that's got to do with it." "Everything. For some dispositions, everything. Mine is one. Yours is another." "Well, I guess I've not come here to talk about marriage. What I want to know is why--" "Quite so," said the lawyer, as he stopped. "And I can tell you. It's because your inn is suspected of being run in the interests of the German Government." A deep silence fell upon the room. The lawyer watched Mr. Twist with a detached and highly intelligent interest. Mr. Twist stared at the lawyer, his kind, lavish lips fallen apart. Anger had left him. This blow excluded anger. There was only room in him for blank astonishment. "You know about my teapot?" he said at last. "Try me again, Mr. Twist." "It's on every American breakfast table." "Including my own." "They wouldn't use it if they thought--" "My dear sir, they're not going to," said the lawyer. "They're proposing, among other little plans for conveying the general sentiment to your notice, to boycott the teapot. It is to be put on an unofficial black list. It is to be banished from the hotels." Mr. Twist's stare became frozen. The teapot boycotted? The teapot his mother and sister depended on and The Open Arms depended on, and all his happiness, and the twins? He saw the rumour surging over America in great swift waves, that the proceeds of the Twist Non-Trickler were used for Germany. He saw--but what didn't he see in that moment of submerged horror? Then he seemed to come to the surface again and resume reason with a gasp. "Why?" he asked. "Why they're wanting to boycott the teapot?" "No. Why do they think the inn--" "The Miss Twinklers are German." "Half."