"Something that I think will surprise you," said Mr. Pyecroft. "Something that has completely astounded all of us--particularly this lady who is Mrs. De Peyster's housekeeper, and Miss Harmon, here, who has just returned from a quiet summer in Maine to attend her cousin's funeral. The fact is, gentlemen, to come right to the point, there is to be no funeral." "No funeral!" cried Mr. Mayfair. "No funeral!" ran through the crowd. "No funeral," repeated Mr. Pyecroft. "The reason, gentlemen, is that a great mistake has been made. Mrs. De Peyster is not dead." "Not dead!" exclaimed the reporters. "If you desire proof, here it is." Mr. Pyecroft, stepping aside, revealed the figure of Mrs. De Peyster. He put his right hand upon her shoulder, gripping it tightly and holding her in her chair, and with his left he lifted the thick veil above her face. "I believe that most of you know Mrs. De Peyster, at least from her pictures." "Mrs. De Peyster!" cried the staggered crowd. "Mrs. De Peyster herself!" "Mrs. De Peyster herself," repeated Mr. Pyecroft in his grave voice. "You are surprised, but not more so than the rest of us." "But that other Mrs. De Peyster--the one the funeral is for?" asked Mr. Mayfair. "Who is she?" "That, gentlemen, is as great a mystery to us as to any of you," said Mr. Pyecroft. "But how the--but how did it all happen?" ejaculated Mr. Mayfair. "That is what I am going to tell you," Mr. Pyecroft answered. Mrs. De Peyster struggled up. "Don't--don't!" she besought him wildly. Mr. Pyecroft pressed her back into her chair, and held her there with an arm that was like a brace of steel. "You see, gentlemen," he remarked sympathetically, "how this business has upset her." "Yes! But the explanation?" "Immediately--word for word, as Mrs. De Peyster has just now told us," said he. "Oh!" moaned Mrs. De Peyster. Olivetta and Matilda gazed at Mr. Pyecroft with ghastly, loose-lipped faces; Judge Harvey and Jack and Mary stared at him with an amazed suspense which they could hardly mask; and Miss Gardner, with whom he had not yet made his peace, breathlessly awaited the next move of this incomprehensible husband of hers. Mr. Pyecroft kept his eyes, for the most part, upon the shrewd, fraud-penetrating features of the unfoilable Mr. Mayfair--his own countenance the most truthful that son of Adam ever wore. "What Mrs. De Peyster has said is really very simple. As you know, she left Paris two or three weeks ago on a long motor trip. During her brief stay in Paris, one of her trunks was either lost or stolen, she is not certain which. As she pays no personal attention to her baggage, she was not aware of her loss for several days. So much is fact. Now we come to mere conjecture. A plausible conjecture seems to be that the gowns in the trunk were sold to a second-hand dealer, and these gowns, being attractive, the dealer must have immediately resold to various purchasers, and one of these purchasers must have--"