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90 "and you can be as completely alone here as though you were Robinson Crusoe on the desert island."

"I shall not want to be alone very often, dear," I said, gushingly.

"I have a couple of rooms on the other side of the house fitted up for myself, to smoke and write in," he went on, rather hesitatingly, paying no attention to my pretty little speech. "You see I do a little literary work, and I—I—do not want to be disturbed."

"You shall not be disturbed, Arthur," I said, dutifully. "Let me go and inspect your rooms, please."

He looked annoyed. "They are in great disorder, Elsie," he said, "and I don't think you had better venture into them."

"I feel a wifely interest in them, dear," I pleaded with a smile.

"Not now," he said hastily.

"I believe you're a Bluebeard, Arthur, and that the bodies of a dozen preceding Mrs. Ravener's lie festering in that room. I shall wait until you go out, like the last and surviving Mrs.