"A committee of the older guests is trying to arrange now to keep the house open in spite of Bangs," said John Ryder. "But Bangs is a sharper. He may have fixed things so that we shall be without light or heat for a part of the night. But to-morrow----" "Oh, dear!" broke in the large lady in horror. "I'll never dare stay in my rooms in the dark. And all stark alone. What _shall_ I do? You know how very helpless we widows feel, Mister--er----" She did not speak the name, which evidently had escaped her, but her smirk caused Ryder a feeling of sudden nausea. "You don't look helpless," he thought, with much disapproval of the visitor. Mrs. Judson gave one the impression of being a woman amply able to take care of herself in any emergency. Aloud he said: "There are men now seeing about obtaining candles and lamps. Perhaps heat may be furnished some of the rooms with the aid of oil stoves. Of course, the furnace fires are not out yet." "It is not cold in here," Ruth said brightly. "But it will be if what Bangs says is true. He hasn't coal enough to last until midnight. Oh, he was ready weeks ago for this trick, without any doubt." "And we can't get away!" wailed the heavy woman in the armchair. "When poor, dear Horace was alive nothing like this ever happened to me. And an oil stove! Horrid, smelly things! Oh, I never could sleep with one in my room! I am delicate, you know, quite delicate! Dear Horace always took the greatest care of me!" Ryder looked at the huge, over-fed woman before him, and had some difficulty to keep from snorting aloud at her claim of delicate health. "And candles!" she wailed on. "You surely can't expect a woman to dress and undress by the aid of candle light! Oh, it's all horrid--perfectly horrid!" She seemed on the verge of tears, and from her size Ryder expected nothing less than a deluge. He made for the door. "I'll see what can be done about it," he whispered to Ruth, who followed him swiftly, to squeeze his hand in both her own. "Don't you be troubled, dearie. I will not remain away long." "I was troubled," she confessed in the same tone. "Then I sent a bellboy to page you and he couldn't find you anywhere." "The stupid! I was right down there in the foyer. We'll be all right when this tangle is straightened out. But, for the beginning of a honeymoon----" "Yes," she suddenly giggled. "Isn't it just too _funny_? Shall we really stay?" "To be sure. Dispossessing a manager who won't pay his rent is all right; but to try to dispossess a guest who is ready and willing to pay is quite another matter. It can't be done." "Then shall I continue to unpack my trunks?" Ryder smiled at her, then glanced back at the boxes. They were more than half empty already and the open wardrobe doors gave him a view of a number of pretty gowns which Ruth had shaken out and hung away.