"Answer me, Sybilla!"
"Y-yes--I did."
"What did you suppose it to be?"
"I thought--we all thought--that you kept a wireless telephone instrument
in there----"
"Why? Just because I happen to be president of the Amalgamated Wireless
Trust Company?"
"Yes. And we were dying to see a wireless telephone work.... I thought
I'd like to call up Central--just to be sure I could make the thing go--
_What_ is the matter, Pa-_pah?_"
He dropped into a wadded armchair and motioned Sybilla to a seat
opposite. Then with another frightful facial contortion he reimbedded the
monocle.
"So you deliberately opened that door and went in to rummage?"
"No," said the girl; "we were--skylarking a little, on our way to the
gymnasium; and I gave Brasilia a little shove toward the laboratory door,
and then Flavilla pushed me--very gently--and somehow I--the door flew
open and my mask fell off and rolled inside; and I went in after it. That
is how it happened--partly."
She lifted her dark and very beautiful eyes to her stony parent, then
they dropped, and she began tracing figures and arabesques on the
polished floor with the point of her foil. "That is partly how," she
repeated.
"What is the other part?"
"The other part was that, having unfortunately disobeyed you, and being
already in the room, I thought I might as well stay and take a little
peep around----"
Her father fairly bounced in his padded chair.
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