In due time the compromising situation
arrives, and we find that it not only requires a room with three
doors,[6] but that a locksmith has to be specially called in to provide
two of these doors with peculiar locks, so that, when once shut, they
cannot be opened from inside except with a key! What interest can we
take in a situation turning on such contrivances? Sane technic laughs at
locksmiths. And after all this preparation, the situation proves to be a
familiar trick of theatrical thimble-rigging: you lift the thimble, and
instead of Pea A, behold Pea B!--instead of Lady Saumarez it is Mrs.
Trevelyan who is concealed in Isidore de Lorano's bedroom. Sir William
Saumarez must be an exceedingly simple-minded person to accept the
substitution, and exceedingly unfamiliar with the French drama of the
'seventies and 'eighties. If he had his wits about him he would say: "I
know this dodge: it comes from Sardou. Lady Saumarez has just slipped
out by that door, up R., and if I look about I shall certainly find her
fan, or her glove, or her handkerchief somewhere on the premises.
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