"Not yet," replied Herbert. "Marc expects to turn up, so he wired High-Muck, but I'll believe it when he gets here. Another case of Romeo and Juliet, so Louis says. Le Blanc promises to turn up after dinner. Louis, you are nearest--get a fresh glass and move that decanter this way,--Brierley is as cold as a frog." "No--stay where you are, Louis," cried the hunter. "I'll wait until I get something to eat--hot soup is what I want, not cognac. I say, High-Muck, when are we going to have dinner? I'm concave from my chin to my waistband; haven't had a crumb since I tumbled out of bed this morning in the pitch dark." "Expect it every minute. Here comes Leà now with the soup and Mignon with hot plates." Louis caught sight of the two women, backed himself against the jamb of the fireplace, and opened wide his arms. "Make way, gentlemen!" he cried. "Behold the lost saint--our Lady of the Sabots!--and the adorable Mademoiselle Mignon! I kiss the tips of your fingers, mademoiselle. And now tell me where that fisher-boy is--that handsome young fellow Gaston I heard about when I was last here. What have you done with him? Has he drowned himself because you wouldn't be called in church, or is he saving up his sous to put a new straw thatch on his mother's house so there will be room for two more?" Pretty Mignon blushed scarlet and kept straight on to the serving-table without daring to answer--Gaston was a tender subject to her, almost as tender as Mignon was to Gaston--but Leà, after depositing the tureen at the top of the table, made a little bob of a curtsy, first to Herbert and then to Louis and Brierley--thanking them for coming, and adding, in her quaint Normandy French, that she would have gone home a month since had not the master told her of our coming. "And have broken our hearts, you lovely old gargoyle!" laughed Louis. "Don't you dare leave the Inn. They are getting on very well at the church without you. Come, Herbert, down with you in the old Florentine. I'll sit next so I can keep all three wooden heads in order," and he wheeled the chair into place. "Now, Leà--the soup!" III WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO A CERTAIN COLONY OF PENGUINS