I was going to remark that women would believe anything, but Barbara's eye was upon me. Yet Liosha's unfamiliarity with the laws and formalities of English marriage was natural, considering the fact that, not so very long before, she was placidly prepared to be sold to a young Albanian cutthroat who met his death through coming to haggle over her price. I myself had found unworthy amusement in telling her wild fables of English life. Her ignorance in many ways was abysmal. Once having seen a photograph in the papers of the King in a bowler-hat she expressed her disappointment that he wore no insignia of royalty; and when I consoled her by saying that, by Act of Parliament, the King was obliged to wear his crown so many hours a day and therefore wore it always at breakfast, lunch and dinner in Buckingham Palace, she accepted my assurance with the credulity of a child of four. And when Barbara rebuked me for taking advantage of her innocence, she was very angry indeed. How was she to know when and where not to believe me? "She is fresh and ingenuous enough," said I, "to swallow any kind of plausible story. And her ingenuousness in writing you a full account of it is a proof." "She has given the whole show away," said Jaffery. He smiled. "If Fendihook knew, he would be as sick as a dog." "And the poor dear is so honest and truthful," said Barbara. "She thought she was doing the honourable thing in letting you know." "No doubt modelling herself on Mrs. Jupp, late Considine," said I. "Who let us know at the last minute," said Barbara with a quick knitting of the brow. "Precisely," said I. "Good Lord!" cried Jaffery. "Do you think she's gone off with the fellow already?" "You had better ring up Queen's Gate and find out." He rushed from the room. I hastily finished shaving, while Barbara discoursed to me on the neglect of our duties with regard to Liosha. Presently Jaffery burst in like a rhinoceros. "She's gone! She went on Thursday. And this is Saturday. Fendihook left last Sunday. Evidently she has joined him." We regarded each other in dismay. "They're in Havre by now," said Barbara. "I'm not so sure," said Jaffery, sweeping his beard from moustache downward. This I knew to be a sign of satisfaction. When he was puzzled he scrabbled at the whisker. "I'm not so sure. Why should he leave the boarding-house on Sunday? I'll tell you. Because his London engagement was over and he had to put in a week's engagement at some provincial music-hall. Theatrical folks always travel on Sunday. If he was still working in London and wanted to shift his lodgings he wouldn't have chosen Sunday. We can easily see by the advertisements in the morning paper. His London engagement was at the Atrium." "I've got the _Daily Telegraph_ here," said Barbara.