"Yes, I have an idea, Miss Adelaide--at least an idea of how it might have occurred, but ideas are not worth much without proofs. They are apt to be rather prejudicial, especially with young ladies of your age. Perhaps I will tell you my idea sometime." "Before you go away, Mr. Bombs?" "No, surely not. You will not be much older then," laughed Bombs. "When I come back from Europe you will be quite a young lady. The explosion of an idea or of fireworks will not be apt to shock you then." "I shall always be shocked when I think of that beautiful boy's death, Mr. Bombs. It's a dreadful mystery!" "Was his name Laurens or Lawrence." asked Bombs, laconically. "Laurens. It was his mother's maiden name. Her ancestors were French." "Laurens Cornwallis! Indeed! Two celebrated names. English and French conjoined. Do they claim to be descendants of the French financier and of the English fighter?" asked Bombs. "I have never heard so. Wouldn't it be lovely though? Foe meeting foe in true love and friendliness through their children. Mr. and Mrs. Cornwallis are a very devoted couple." "My point of view was simply consolatory. Providence permitting, it might not be well to have too many Cornwallis's on American soil," said Bombs. "We have room enough and to spare. I read a letter yesterday from Washington to Lafayette. He said it's a strange thing that there should not be room enough in the world for men to live without cutting each other's throats." "But he laid siege to Yorktown all the same, Miss Adelaide." "Yes, but after it was all over and he had grown older and wiser, he saw how horrible it was. I almost know he did." "I am only twenty-one and the siege is booked," laughed Bombs. "I wonder if Mrs. Ruth Cornwallis will come to witness it? I should think she would be interested, especially if one of her grandfathers paid French money for it and the other had to surrender." "I think she will not, but I'm going to ask her today," replied Adelaide, as she started off for the Library. When she returned she told Bombs that Ruth was supposedly allied to the Laurens and Cornwallis of Revolutionary fame and that her husband, Ralph Oswald Norwood, could trace his ancestry back to the British merchant who told King George that "nothing would satisfy the Americans short of permission to fish to an unlimited extent on the banks of New Foundland." "Then I shall have to give them seats in the front row, I suppose," laughed Bombs. "No, they are not coming, Mr. Bombs. Ruth attended the Queen's birthday celebration once when she was in Canada. It wound up with one of the great London Pyro-king's shows. She did not like it at all and was afterwards shocked to learn that America had paid millions of dollars for such shows during the twenty-five years of his occupancy of her market and that they were advertisements for his Fourth of July Fireworks, which are a curse to the land."