"I am ashamed to tell you how I know it. I am afraid you will never be able to trust me if you know."
"I not trust you! You seem like an angel from heaven to me."
"Well, first let me introduce my sister and friend to you."
Dee had a wonderful power of putting persons at their ease and now in these circumstances, to say the least unconventional, she turned and introduced us to Mr. Louis Gaillard with as much simplicity as she would have shown at a tennis game or in a ball-room. He, with the polished manners of his race, bowed low over our proffered hands. All of us ignored the pile of bricks and the sinister rope hanging from the chandelier.
"We are twins and this is our best friend, Page Allison. We have got some real long names, but Dum and Dee are the names we go by as a rule, Dum and Dee Tucker. We are down here in Charleston with our father Jeffry Tucker, Zebedee for short. And now I want you to do us a big favor——"
"Me? A favor for you?" Dee had proceeded rather rapidly and the dazed young man had some difficulty in following her.
"Yes, a favor! I want you, all of us want you, to come up to the hotel and have lunch with us and meet Zebedee. It is lunch time now almost, and we promised to be back in time,—you see, if you come with us, Zebedee can't row with us about being late. He will be awfully cut up over our being late—nothing makes him so cross. I know if you are with us he will be unable to rag us. Just as soon as he gets something to eat he will be all right."
What was Dee driving at? Zebedee cross! Had she caught the young man's malady and gone a little off her hooks? Dum and I looked at each other wonderingly—then a light dawned on us: she wanted to get the young man entirely away from this terrible room, and felt if she made him think that he was to go along to protect us from an irate father, he would do it from a sense of chivalry. Having more experience with an irate father than any other kind, Louis was easily persuaded.
"Certainly, if I can be of any assistance!"
"Well, you can! Now let's hurry!"