"What's that?"
"I—er, hardly know how to put it. You see, when Gerald and I were affianced, neither one of us were undergoing any kind of corrective therapy and so I don't know how these things work out."
"What are you driving at?"
"Why, Scholar Ross, with neither of us undergoing corrective therapy, it didn't matter which one of the bedrooms we used."
Scholar Ross considered for a moment and then nodded. "Of course," he said with an air of complete finality. "That's it!"
"What's it?" asked Mr. Hanford.
"The situation becomes a simple matter of reduction to the law of most-active reaction. Look," he said, "we have one personality that requires an environment of stimulation to bring him up to normal, and another personality that requires a tranquil atmosphere to normal. Place them both in the tranquilizing environment and he is driven deeper into his lethargy, probably to the point of complete physical and intellectual torpor. Place them both in the stimulating atmosphere and he becomes normal while she goes into transports of sensuous excitement. This explains it!"
"Explains what?" demanded Mr. Hanford.
"Her recent behavior. Or rather escapade."
None of them heard the gentle snick of the lock in the front door.