The young lady smiled suddenly. "You poor men!" she cried. "Agrippa! Come here, sir!" Agrippa's dominion was ended. He turned to her, a very humble dog. She leaned over and boxed his ears with a soft, white hand--but so gently that Agrippa would have smiled if he knew how. He did wag his stubby tail by way of acknowledgment. "Please don't stir," she said to the three appalled observers. "I'll take him away. He's a very naughty dog." She departed, Agrippa's collar in her fingers. A moment later she returned. The three men were standing, but, by curious coincidence, each had taken a position behind the chair he had occupied. "Mrs. Scoville begs me to say that she is sorry to have kept you waiting so long, and that she will be down as soon as she has changed her gown." "Her gown?" murmured Bosworth. "Changing it for what?" muttered Mr. Van Pycke, dreadfully bewildered. "For a street gown. She's going out, you see." Mr. Doxey coughed by way of attracting attention. "Do you know these gents, Miss Downing?" The smile deepened in her face. Bosworth never had seen a smile so ravishing. He smiled in sympathy, without knowing just why he did it. "It isn't necessary to watch them any longer," she said very sweetly. Mr. Doxey retired to the group near the windows. "Thanks," said Bosworth, bowing to her. "Pardon me," said his father, "but I understood Mrs. Scoville was at dinner." "That was some time ago, Mr. Van Pycke," the girl said quickly. "She just _had_ to change her gown, you know." "Spilled something on it?" he queried. "These confounded servants are so--" "Won't you sit down?" she interrupted. Bosworth noted a sudden touch of nervousness in her manner. For some reason she bit her lip as she looked in the direction of the dummies. "If you don't mind," mumbled Mr. Van Pycke, "I think I'll go upstairs and change my shoes and trousers." He started for the door. Miss Downing stood aghast--petrified. CHAPTER III THE AMAZING MARRIAGE No one opposing him, Mr. Van Pycke carefully made his way to the door and disappeared into the hall. Miss Downing continued to stare after him for many seconds, plainly perplexed. She was not so transfixed, however, that she failed to note the grotesque misfit of his trousers; nor did his manner of locomotion escape her attention. Could this hobbling, ill-dressed person be the fastidious Van Dieman Van Pycke, of whom she had heard so much? And he was going upstairs to--by the virtue of all the saints, what _did_ he mean? A blush raced into her fair cheek. She turned to young Mr. Van Pycke with parted lips, half inclined to smile, half to protest. She found him smiling, yes, more than that; he had his hand over his mouth. Plainly, he was having a struggle of an inward character. "I--I don't understand," she murmured, the flush growing. "And _we_ don't understand," he responded after a moment, waving his hand in the direction of the dummies. She smiled brightly. "You've noticed them?"