“Blint,” she said, pointing to the bill hanging upon the wall, “have those people come to Crumplesea as yet? I see they are advertised to open the new hall next Thursday. Have they come here yet?” “No, my lady, not yet, of course; it’s best part of a week until Thursday. The advance agent will be here to-morrow, though, to make arrangements for rooms and the like. Hamer--him as runs the Cliff Hotel, as you may remember, seeing that he’s a tenant of yours--got word to that effect this afternoon, and come over to see if I’d any rooms vacant; him not being able to put up the whole party.” Berry pushed back her empty teacup, and rose. “See that they don’t get any, then,” she said, in a singularly dry voice. “See that every room in every hotel in the place is engaged for me. I don’t care what it costs, I want them all. Engage them for me.” “I beg pardon, ma’am, but--but can you really mean it?” “Am I in the habit of saying things that I do not mean? I see that they are billed to appear for three nights. Take all the vacant rooms in all the hotels for that period, in my name. Shut them out of every accommodation and force them to go elsewhere, if you can, and that woman, above all!” The man gave a nervous start and looked as though he had received a shock. “My lady!” he said, with a frightened look. “Heaven preserve us! it’s not her? It’s never the--the Yankee woman who married your--your brother, Mr. Vance?” “Yes, it is. I never want to see her, but I recognize the name; as Mercy would have done, had she been at home. Now go and do what I have told you, and see that the woman finds no place to stop here. If you think the manager of the hall can be bought to cancel the engagement of the company----” “It is not possible, my lady; the thing was arranged months ago.” “So much the worse for me, then. However, I’ll do what I can. Go and engage every vacant room you can hear of, and go at once, please.” Blint, in a state of shaking nervousness, flew to obey, and when, half an hour afterward, he came back to announce that he had done as he had been bidden, he found the repaired motor car at the door and her ladyship sitting in it. “Thank you,” she said, as Blint came back with the list of the rooms he had engaged in her name. “Reckon up the sum total and I will send you a check for the amount. Home, Mellish.” And then the motor car swung out into the roadway and rolled off through the fast deepening Kentish dusk. And this was how it was that when Mr. Milton Dante’s advance agent came down to Crumplesea to arrange accommodations for the company, he found every available inch of room in the several hotels engaged for a week to come.