"I was going to tell you----"
"Did you?" he bellowed musically. "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."