The President looked at her kindly.

“Did she say so?”

“Oh, she didn’t need to say so!” cried Kate.  “Any one would know that.”

“You mean, any good woman would know that.  Of course, I can give it out that Fulham has been called abroad suddenly, but it places me in a bad position.  I don’t feel very much like lying for him, and I shan’t be thought any too well of if I’m found out.  I should like to place myself on record as befriending Mrs. Fulham, not her husband.”

“But don’t you see that you are befriending her when you shield him?”

“Woman’s logic,” said the President.  “It has too many turnings for my feeble masculine intellect.  But I’ve great confidence in you, Miss Barrington.  You seem to be rather a specialist in domestic relations.  If you say Mrs. Fulham will be happier for having me bathe neck-deep in lies, I suppose I shall have to oblige you.  Shall it be the lie circumstantial?  Do you wish to specify the laboratory to which he has gone?”

Kate blushed with sudden contrition.

“Oh, I’ll not ask you to do it!” she cried.  “Truth is best, of course.  I’m not naturally a trimmer and a compromiser—­but, poor Honora!  I pity her so!”

Her lips quivered like a child’s and the tears stood in her eyes.  She had arisen to go and the President shook hands with her without making any promise.  However the next day a paragraph appeared in the University Daily to the effect that Professor Fulham had been called to France upon important laboratory matters.

At the Caravansary they had scented tragedy, and Kate faced them with the paragraph.  She laid a marked copy of the paper at each place, and when all were assembled, she called attention to it.  They looked at her with questioning eyes.

“Of course,” said Dr. von Shierbrand, flicking his mustache, “this isn’t true, Miss Barrington.”

“No,” said Kate, and faced them with her chin tilted high.

“But you wish us to pretend to believe it?”

“If you please, dear friends,” Kate pleaded.

“We shall say that Fulham is in France!  And what are we to say about Miss Morrison?”

“Who will inquire?  If any one should, say that a friend desired her as a traveling companion.”

“Nothing,” said Von Shierbrand, “is easier for me than truth.”

“Please don’t be witty,” cried Kate testily, “and don’t sneer.  Remember that nothing is so terrible as temptation.  I’m sure I see proof of that every day among my poor people.  After all, doesn’t the real surprise lie in the number that resist it?”

“I beg your pardon,” said the young German gently.  “I shall not sneer.  I shall not even be witty.  I’m on your side,—­that is to say, on Mrs. Fulham’s side,—­and I’ll say anything you want me to say.”

“I beg you all,” replied Kate, sweeping the table with an imploring glance, “to say as little as possible.  Be matter-of-fact if any one questions you.  And, whatever you do, shield Honora.”