She turned to him with a laugh, and said:  “That is the general opinion, or was two hours ago; but I’m afraid it’s out of the question now, unless we can manage it after luncheon.”

“What do you mean?” he asked with a puzzled smile at the mixture of annoyance and amusement visible in her face.  “Same old story?”

“Yes,” she replied, “same old story.  When I went to my breakfast I called at my sister’s room and said, ’"Come, boys and girls, come out to play, the sun doth shine as bright as day,” and when I’ve had my breakfast I’m coming to lug you both on deck.  It’s a perfectly glorious morning, and it will do you both no end of good after being shut up so long.’  ‘All right,’ my sister answered, ’Julius has quite made up his mind to go up as soon as he is dressed.  You call for us in half an hour, and we will be ready.’”

“And wouldn’t he come?” John asked; “and why not?”

“Oh,” she exclaimed with a laugh and a shrug of her shoulders, “shoes.”

“Shoes!” said John.  “What do you mean?”

“Just what I say,” was the rejoinder.  “When I went back to the room I found my brother-in-law sitting on the edge of the lounge, or what you call it, all dressed but his coat, rubbing his chin between his finger and thumb, and gazing with despairing perplexity at his feet.  It seems that my sister had got past all the other dilemmas, but in a moment of inadvertence had left the shoe question to him, with the result that he had put on one russet shoe and one black one, and had laced them up before discovering the discrepancy.”

“I don’t see anything very difficult in that situation,” remarked John.

“Don’t you?” she said scornfully.  “No, I suppose not, but it was quite enough for Julius, and more than enough for my sister and me.  His first notion was to take off both shoes and begin all over again, and perhaps if he had been allowed to carry it out he would have been all right; but Alice was silly enough to suggest the obvious thing to him—­to take off one, and put on the mate to the other—­and then the trouble began.  First he was in favor of the black shoes as being thicker in the sole, and then he reflected that they hadn’t been blackened since coming on board.  It seemed to him that the russets were more appropriate anyway, but the blacks were easier to lace.  Had I noticed whether the men on board were wearing russet or black as a rule, and did Alice remember whether it was one of the russets or one of the blacks that he was saying the other day pinched his toe?  He didn’t quite like the looks of a russet shoe with dark trousers, and called us to witness that those he had on were dark; but he thought he remembered that it was the black shoe which pinched him.  He supposed he could change his trousers—­and so on, and so on, al fine, de capo, ad lib., sticking out first one foot and then the other, lifting them alternately to his knee for scrutiny, appealing now to Alice and now to me, and