CHAPTER XVIII.
T.X.sat at his desk, his chin in his hands, his mind remarkably busy.
Grave as the matter was which he was considering, he rose with alacrity to meet the smiling girl who was ushered through the door by Mansus, preternaturally solemn and mysterious.
She was radiant that day.

Her eyes were sparkling with an unusual brightness.
"I've got the most wonderful thing to tell you," she said, "and I can't tell you." "That's a very good beginning," said T.X., taking her muff from her hand.
"Oh, but it's really wonderful," she cried eagerly, "more wonderful than anything you have ever heard about." "We are interested," said T.X.

blandly.
"No, no, you mustn't make fun," she begged, "I can't tell you now, but it is something that will make you simply--" she was at a loss for a simile.
"Jump out of my skin ?" suggested T.X.
"I shall astonish you," she nodded her head solemnly.
"I take a lot of astonishing, I warn you," he smiled; "to know you is to exhaust one's capacity for surprise." "That can be either very, very nice or very, very nasty," she said cautiously.
"But accept it as being very, very nice," he laughed.

"Now come, out with this tale of yours." She shook her head very vigorously.
"I can't possibly tell you anything," she said.
"Then why the dickens do you begin telling anything for ?" he complained, not without reason.
"Because I just want you to know that I do know something." "Oh, Lord!" he groaned.

"Of course you know everything.