Aunt Diana declared that I must go with her back to the hotel, and I in my turn declared that if I went Sara must accompany me; so it ended in our taking the key of the house from the sleepy Sabre-boy and all three going back together through the moon-lighted street across the plaza to the hotel. Although it was approaching midnight, the Ancient City had yet no thought of sleep. Its idle inhabitants believed in taking the best of life, and so on moonlight nights they roamed about, two and two, or leaned over their balconies chatting with friends across the way in an easy-going, irregular fashion, which would have distracted an orthodox New England village, where the lights are out at ten o’clock, or they know the reason why. When near the hotel we saw John Hoffman coming from the Basin. [Illustration: THE OLD HOUSE BALCONY.] “We had better tell him,” I suggested. “Oh no,” said Aunt Di, holding me back. “But we must have somebody with us if we are going any farther to-night, aunt, and he is the best person.--Mr. Hoffman, did you enjoy the sail?” “I did not go,” answered John, looking somewhat surprised to see us confronting him at that hour, like the three witches of _Macbeth_. Aunt Di was disheveled, and so was I, while Sara’s golden hair was tumbling about her shoulders under the hat she had hastily tied on. “Have you been out all the evening?” asked Aunt Di, suspiciously. “I went to my room an hour ago, but the night was so beautiful I slipped down the back stairs, so as to not disturb the household, and came out again to walk on the sea-wall.” “Sara did hear him go up to his room: she knows his step, then,” I thought. But I could not stop to ponder over this discovery. “Mr. Hoffman,” I said, “you find us in some perplexity. Miss Carew is out loitering somewhere, in the moonlight, and, like the heedless child she is, has forgotten the hour. We are looking for her, but have no idea where she has gone.” “Probably the demi-lune,” suggested John. Then, catching the ominous expression of Aunt Diana’s face, he added, “They have all gone out to the Rose Garden by moonlight, I think.” “All?” “Miss Sharp and the Professor.” ALL THREE OF US. “Miss Sharp and the Professor?” JOHN (_carelessly_). “The Captain too, of course.” ALL THREE OF US. “The Captain too, of course!” JOHN. “Suppose we stroll out that way and join them?” MYSELF. “The very thing--it is such a lovely evening!” Then to Aunt Di, under my breath, “You see, it is only one of Iris’s wild escapades, aunt; we must make light of it as a child’s freak. We had better stroll out that way, and all walk back together, as though it was a matter of course.” AUNT DI. “Miss Sharp and the Professor!” SARA. “What a madcap freak!”