"Perfectly! And now that’s over," she went on briskly, "don’t you want to hear my fairy tale?" "You bet I do!" he asserted, with more force than elegance. "I’ve been eaten up with curiosity ever since your letter came. It sounded as wildly impossible as an Arabian Night." She laughed. "It was—it is yet. I’m really not quite certain that it isn’t all a wonderfully vivid dream; though, as I wrote you, the clothes do seem awfully convincing. You know, a person never by any chance dreams the sort of dresses one would like to have. They’re always utterly impossible." She clasped one knee with both hands in a boyish way, and fixed her dancing eyes upon his face. "I was a little frightened when I said good-by that night," she began. "So many horrid things had happened that I wasn’t even sure of Mrs. Weston, or Sally, or anything. I rang the bell, and the door was opened so suddenly that I jumped." "I wondered at the time how any one could get up from the basement so quickly," Lawrence commented interestedly. "You waited?" she questioned. "That was good of you. Well, Mrs. Weston was already in the hall with a lady who seemed on the point of going out. I didn’t pay much attention to her except to notice that she was beautifully gowned and had quantities of wonderful jewels. You see, I wanted to find out whether Sally was still in the house, so I turned directly to Mrs. Weston, and started to ask her. I’d spoken scarcely half a dozen words before the other woman caught me by the arm and drew me over to the light. If she hadn’t stared at me so strangely, I suppose I’d have wondered what in the world she was doing in such a place; for her pearls were really extraordinary, and the house—well, you know there was nothing especially high class about it. But she just stared and stared in the oddest way imaginable; then suddenly she cried out: ’Who are you, child?’ "The queer way she snapped out the words—it reminded me of bullets shot out of a gun—almost took my breath away; but I managed to tell her my name. It was fortunate she still held my arm; otherwise I’m sure I should have collapsed in sheer astonishment. "’I knew it!’ she exclaimed, in that extraordinary choppy manner. ’I knew it the minute I set eyes on you. I’m your aunt.’" "Your aunt!" gasped Barry.