In an instant all was confusion. Miss Courteen
wrung her hands and behaved quite as wildly as a grand
married lady on the verge of discovery in an ambiguous
situation below stairs. Mr. Vernon flicked a number of
invisible specks of dust from his purple sattin breeches as
though he had been kneeling in devout protestation of
honourable love for the past hour, while Betty ran in turn
to each of the four alleys leading to their present position,
and put a hand to an attentive ear. She quickly ascer-
tained by which path the enemy was advancing and
without more ado pushed Mr. Vernon hastily in the
opposite direction, thrust a tambour frame into her mis-
tress's hands and composed herself to spell aloud the
Agricultural Calendar and Farmer's Assistant for the
current year. She was in the middle of some astonishing
statisticks of the comparative productiveness per acre of
turnips and mangel-wurzels when Mrs. Courteen
followed by the majestick Thomas appeared upon the
scene. On perceiving her daughter, the latter gave a



CURTAIN MAZE jy

faint scream and declared the meeting would certainly
produce palpitations.
At the utterance of this fatal word, Thomas imme-
diately unscrewed the knob of his cane and drew forth a
bottle of salts, Phyllida performed the same conjuring
trick with her bag, while Betty after some lace-involved
rites in which a crimson garter played a prominent part
offered a third bottle not more than a moment later.
By the tonick influence of several sniffs Mrs. Courteen
was sufficiently revived to ask in a stern voice what
Phyllida was doing in this ungodly place. Thomas
accompanied the query by muttering ' Canaanites '
several times in quick succession under his breath.
