"My dear Adelle," she began, "you should not be so eccentric. You gave us all a shock!... I was coming up to Paris and would have been glad to motor up with you and--er--Mr. Davis, I believe." There was a deadly pause while she scrutinized the guilty couple through her glasses, as if she were determining the exact extent of the mischief already done. She looked disgustedly over the dusty studio and observed,--"It's not a sweet place for--er--love-making is it? Why didn't you go to the Villa, my dear, and let Marie look after you?" Archie laughed inanely. Adelle felt that she could not stand more of this feline fooling. She said bluntly,-- "We're married." "Married! So soon! How--er--nice!" Pussy commented. "Yes, we're married, Miss Comstock," Archie added lamely, mopping his brow. "You don't mean that?" Miss Comstock said quickly, her tone changing. Adelle nodded. "Then it is really a serious matter." Adelle's blood froze. "I can't believe you have been such a fool," she said to the girl. "Or you such a scamp," she turned upon the frightened youth. It seemed to Adelle that Pussy would have condoned anything or everything except that fatal visit to the consulate. Pussy's morals, she knew, were of the strictly serviceable sort, and she was gladder than ever that she had prodded Archie into having the ceremony performed at once. Now Pussy could do nothing but scold. But Miss Comstock accepted only the inevitable, and she was not yet convinced that the visit to the consulate and the ceremony there constituted an inevitable marriage. She pleaded with Adelle to leave her so-called husband and come back with her to the Neuilly villa "until the matter could be straightened out, and an announcement of the marriage made to the world," as she was wily enough to put it. But Adelle was adamant. Archie, to whom the woman next appealed, was more yielding. She succeeded in frightening him, talking about the dangers of French laws that had to do with minors. Of course they had lied about Adelle's age, and there were all sorts of complications besides the scandal, which was perfectly needless in any case. And Miss Comstock assured them that the trust company would probably take every step to annul the marriage. There was a very hard road ahead of them if they persisted in their idiotic course. Finally she even suggested that Archie might return to the Villa with them until his status could be determined. Adelle, however, feared Pussy's cleverness and would not stir from the studio. All through the protracted interview in this crisis, when her heart's desire was threatened, Adelle displayed surprising courage and steadfastness of purpose. Her courage naturally was an egotistic courage: it amounted in sum to this--nobody should take away her toy from her this time. And finally Miss Comstock retired from the scene defeated and somewhat venomous.