Oh? [_Turning to PRINGLE._] Perhaps, Pringle, if you wouldn't mind----? PRINGLE. [_Moving to the door on the left._] Oh, by all means! MR. WACKERBATH. [_To PRINGLE._] Stop, sir! Don't you run away! For all _I_ know, _you_ may have had a hand in this disgraceful business! PRINGLE. [_With dignity._] I occupy the adjoining office, sir, and I am in practice as an architect. But I have no business connection with Mr. Ventimore--none whatever. [_Offering to go._ MR. WACKERBATH. You will oblige me by staying. I should like your opinion--as an architect--on the way I've been treated. [_He puts down his hat on the cabinet by the door._ PRINGLE. Oh, if Mr. Ventimore has no objection---- HORACE. Well--oh, stay if you think proper. [_To MR. WACKERBATH, offering armchair on left of table._] Now, sir; if you'll sit down and compose yourself---- MR. WACKERBATH. I will _not_ sit down, sir, and I find it difficult to compose myself. You know very well _why_! HORACE. I don't, indeed. Unless--unless you've discovered the--the means by which you were induced to come to me yesterday. But, after all, there's no great _harm_ done. MR. WACKERBATH. [_Bursting with rage._] No great harm! You can stand there and tell me _that_! HORACE. [_Calmly._] Certainly. If you prefer to go to some other architect, you're perfectly free to do so. MR. WACKERBATH. [_Frantically._] Free! _Free!!_ When the damned house is _built_! HORACE AND PRINGLE. [_Together, each starting back._] Built? MR. WACKERBATH. Built, sir, built! When my wife and I saw it on our way to the station this morning, we could hardly believe our eyes. But my coachman--who's not given to imagination--saw it as plain as we did. [_HORACE hears all this with stupefaction at first, and then with growing comprehension._] And, considering I only gave you the commission yesterday afternoon, I should like to know how the devil you managed to put up such a place in the time? PRINGLE. My dear sir, as a professional man, let me assure you it would be impossible--quite impossible. It must have been due to some effect of mirage. MR. WACKERBATH. Mirage, indeed! We got out of the carriage and climbed the slope and went all over the building! Are you going to tell me we've been all over a _mirage_? HORACE. [_Half to himself._] Oh, the blithering old idiot! MR. WACKERBATH. [_Turning on him suddenly._] Are you addressing _me_, sir? HORACE. No, no; not _you_! Of course not. [_With a groan._] I told him, like a fool, where the site was--and he's done the rest during the night!