Didn't I?"
"Yes, Pa-_pah_."
"Well, confound it, what did you go in for, then?"
An anxious silence was his answer. "You didn't all go in, did you?" he
demanded in a melodious bellow.
"Oh, no, Pa-_pah!_"
"Did two of you go?"
"Oh-h, n-o, Pa-_pah!_"
"Well, which one did?"
The line of beauty wavered for a moment; then Sybilla stepped slowly to
the front, three paces, and halted with downcast eyes.
"I told you not to, didn't I?" said her father, scowling the monocle out
of his eye and reinserting it.
"Y-yes, Pa-_pah_."
"But you _did?_"
"Y-yes----"
"That will do! Flavilla! Drusilla! You are excused," dismissing the two
guiltless triplets with a wave of the terrible eyeglass; and when they
had faced to the rear and retired in good order, closing the door behind
them, he regarded his delinquent daughter in wrathy and rubicund dismay.
"What did you see in that laboratory?" he demanded.
Sybilla began to count on her fingers. "As I walked around the room I
noticed jars, bottles, tubes, lamps, retorts, blowpipes, batteries----"
"Did you notice a small, shiny machine that somewhat resembles the
interior economy of a watch?"
"Yes, Pa-_pah_, but I haven't come to that yet----"
"Did you go near it?"
"Quite near----"
"You didn't touch it, did you?"
"I was going to tell you----"
"_Did_ you?" he bellowed musically.
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