"Go ahead," he said, easily. "You'll want the furbelows out of the boxes, anyway. They look as though they'd muss pretty easily." She glanced at him sidewise with a little blush, and squeezed his hand again. "Don't you think they're _sweet_?" she whispered. "I made them almost all myself." "Is that so?" responded Ryder, with another curious glance at the gowns in display. Then he went out and she closed the door after him. When he had walked half the length of the corridor he halted and came near going back to the suite again. Two startling facts had finally made an impression on his busy mind. One was the nature of Ruth's wardrobe. Ryder was not much versed in women's apparel, and all those pretty, dainty, gray and cream colored dresses could mean but one thing. To his mind, they were bride's gowns. He had met his wife first aboard the _Minnequago_ and had known her just seven days before they were married. He had seen her wear no dress on shipboard like these she had brought out of her trunks. Indeed, Miss Mont had been gowned with severity and with no more style than the average English woman displays. "Why," muttered Ryder, "she has a complete bridal outfit--or, it seems so to me. How could she have got those dresses? And she says she made them herself!" He turned back, but bethought him of Mrs. Judson. He could have no private word with Ruth now. So he walked slowly on toward the main stairway, and his mind reverted to the second puzzling circumstance he had noted. There were few if any labels on his wife's trunks. No trunk can cross the ocean without being plastered over with the various marks and stamps of the European agencies, and of the steamship companies. It was a small matter, perhaps--this lack of the usual labels--but it continued to puzzle John Ryder until he had descended to the office once more and found himself again in the thick of the circumstances connected with the attempt of the hotel manager to turn his guests out of house and home. CHAPTER VI BUSINESS METHODS The members of the committee had regathered and were awaiting their chairman. Matters had been found to be in a much worse condition than the guests had really believed. From the steward they had learned that the whole kitchen was disorganized, and had been so for some days. He had had the greatest difficulty in preventing an eruption there. "Why?" demanded Ryder, having been told this. "They are afraid they will lose their pay. These French and Italians are easily excited anyway," explained Jimson, who was not a little excited himself. "The waiters and the upstairs help are in a blue funk for the same reason." "How about the coal?" Ryder asked another man. "It's every whit as bad as Bangs said. There is only a little furnace coal. If they use the coal intended for the kitchen fires there would not be enough to keep the boilers warm until daylight." "Hang that Bangs!"