Soon after Miss Stratton had retired with her dog to her own room, Millie’s husband came to see his sister-in-law, and to escort his wife home to their quarters. The new arrival was liberally discussed and enthusiastically praised. But Sergeant-Major Twiley was disposed to receive all praises of the beautiful stranger _cum grano salis_, and rather hurt the feelings of his women-folks by offering to go round to a certain English hotelkeeper to have a look at the London directory, which served as a sort of guarantee to the _bona fides_ of would-be creditors. He found nothing, however, but a substantiation of the new lodger’s statements. The name and address she had given both tallied with those in the directory. So Sergeant-Major Twiley was reassured, and the ladies found their convictions confirmed. But what would the three of them have thought if they could have seen what was now going on in the room to which the supposed Miss Stratton had retired, avowedly with the object of securing a good night’s rest? CHAPTER XVII. RUNNING HIM DOWN. “Now, Briny,” said Miss Stratton, having assured herself that there was no possibility of her either being overseen or overheard, “we shall have to be smart lest we startle our game too soon again. I think that with all his attempts at disguise it will take him all his time to deceive me. I wonder what he will think of me when he comes under the spell of the fascinations I mean to exercise over him? H’m! Perhaps he is not very susceptible, and won’t be fascinated. In that case, I mean to work upon another tack. I only hope that I have studied the art of make-up sufficiently to prevent me from committing a hopeless blunder. Madame D’Alterre charged plenty for her instructions, and, so far, I am doing credit to them.” As Miss Stratton talked to her dog, she patted and caressed him, and altogether treated him as if he could understand every word she said. For his part, he made no noisy demonstrations of approval, but showed his sympathy and appreciation in his own dignified way. Then he laid himself beside the door and watched the transformation which his mistress soon began to make in her appearance. Truth to say, the change effected was sufficiently startling to deceive even the keenest observer, and perhaps Briny himself would have been at fault if he had not been already initiated into some of his owner’s curious habits.