"Of course. Why not? Only ..." 

 I hesitated. 

 "What?" 

 "Hadn't you better—I mean, won't the mask get in your way?" 

 She lowered the jug and looked at me.  "No; it won't get in the way. Thanks all the same," she said steadily.  "Not all to-day." 

 "It's in the way now." 

 "Not my way." 

 I saw her eyes watching my face as she drank, and when she took the jug from her lips she was smiling. 

 We had some difficulty in persuading the boy to leave us; but at length, a heavy bribe, coupled with the assurance that we should be at the fete in the afternoon, had the desired effect, and he went slowly away. 

 Thereafter we took counsel together. 

 As a result, it was decided that we should fold the booth—it shut up like a screen—and convey it, puppets and all, a little way into the wood. It was early yet, but some people would be passing along the road, and we were not yet ready to combat the curiosity that the appearance of a Punch and Judy show would be sure to arouse. That done, she would lie close in the wood with Toby, while I made off home and changed. 

 As I started off, after settling her in the bracken, I heard the village clock strike the half-hour. Half-past seven. I gained the house unobserved. No one was abroad except the servants, but I heard Daphne singing in the bathroom. 

 I had worn the Pierrot dress two years ago at a fancy-dress ball. 

 There it lay with its mask at the bottom of the wardrobe. The change was soon completed, and I stood up a proper Folly, from the skull cap upon my crown to the pumps upon my feet. It took some time to find the nose, but luck was with me, and at last I ran it to earth in an old collar-box. Truly an appalling article, it stuck straight out from my face like a fat, fiery peg, but between that and the mask, my disguise would defy detection. 

 Suddenly I had a brilliant 

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