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 of the eighteen doors. It gave me a horrible start. It was impossible to be quite sure at which of the eighteen doors it was, but it certainly was not the door that I had come in by. That in itself was creepy. It wasn't exactly what you might call cosy and secluded-like to feel that anybody might spring in upon you any moment through any one of eighteen doors that encircled you all round. I guess it was the most indefensible position that I had ever been in. A door opened quite in an unexpected place, and Berengaria entered. She was wreathed in smiles and the rose-pink dressing-gown. Ostensibly she came to see that I was all right; really, of course, to exhibit the rose-pink dressing-gown.

'Send your maid away,' she whispered, 'and let's talk cosy for five minutes.' The idea of talking cosy in a room like that! However, we ensconced ourselves on the two wicker chairs, and in a weak moment I dismissed Ermyntrude. It only flashed across me after she had gone that I hadn't the remotest idea where her room was. Afterwards I knew what it felt like to have burned one's boats. 'I hope you like your room,' Berengaria was saying in her usual cheery way. 'You must find it nice and roomy after being so cramped up on board ship and in the train.'

'Yes, isn't it roomy?' I returned pleasantly. I never believe in telling lies unnecessarily, so I took refuge in a plain statement of fact. Nobody could have denied that that room was roomy.