"Not in his green jodelling hat, anyway," said Mona. "No one can defend that honestly." "I like it very much," said Mrs. Freeland. "Of course," said Janet, "but then you're his wife. We're not." "Anyway," Jocelyn went on, "father and Harris----" "Harris is the chauffeur," said Joan. "--were patting each other on the back for being so jolly artful, when what do you think happened?" "Father, you tell," said Nancy, who has an eye for drama. Mr. Freeland at once struck in. "This is what happened," he said. "Another car turned into the same lane and pulled up just round the corner, and, peeping through the trees, to our horror we observed a gentleman in a tall hat and morning coat stand up in it and begin changing into a straw hat and tweeds. I pass over the extraordinary coincidence that two guests should have hit upon an identical device to find out the correct thing to do----" "And we pass over too," said Jocelyn, "father's terrible discovery that the neighbourhood contained another man as brilliant as himself." "--and simply ask you to conceive of Harris's and my feelings. For if this other man was right we were wrong." "Yes," said Mona; "but if he was wrong you were right." "Exactly," I said. "Very well, then," continued Mr. Freeland, "I instantly made up my mind." "Napoleon at six stone," said Janet. "'There is only one thing to do,' I said. 'I can't change again. We're too late as it is. We must therefore get there first. To follow this man in, in his vulgar clothes, would be a serious blunder.' So with infinite difficulty and the most perfect tact--carefully turning our heads from his quaint occupation (as though the lanes of England were meant to be dressing-rooms!)--we scraped past him, taking, I am pleased to say, a little varnish off his mudguard, and were away before his braces were properly fastened." "There," said Jocelyn, "don't you think that a masterly move?" "I do," I said. "All brain work," said Mona. "And when you were among the people," I said, "did you find that tall hats prevailed?" "Absolutely," said Mr. Freeland. "I counted them," said Jocelyn. "There were eighty-five straws, with tweeds or flannels; a hundred and ten tall hats; and forty-three Homburgs. Some of the Homburgs were worn with tail coats, so father could have taken his instead of his topper if he had liked." "Thank Heaven he didn't!" said Janet. "My dear Janet," said Mrs. Freeland, "how can you?"