smoke-consuming device of Biedenbach's mentioned in the
narrative. Students interested in such matters should read
the brochure of Arnold Bentham soon to be published.

A mile northwest from the wooded knolls brings one to the
site of Wake Robin Lodge at the junction of Wild-Water and
Sonoma Creeks. It may be noticed, in passing, that Wild-
Water was originally called Graham Creek and was so named on
the early local maps. But the later name sticks. It was at
Wake Robin Lodge that Avis Everhard later lived for short
periods, when, disguised as an agent-provocateur of the Iron
Heel, she was enabled to play with impunity her part among
men and events. The official permission to occupy Wake
Robin Lodge is still on the records, signed by no less a man
than Wickson, the minor oligarch of the Manuscript.


CHAPTER XIX

TRANSFORMATION


"You must make yourself over again," Ernest wrote to me. "You must cease
to be. You must become another woman--and not merely in the clothes you
wear, but inside your skin under the clothes. You must make yourself
over again so that even I would not know you--your voice, your gestures,
your mannerisms, your carriage, your walk, everything."

This command I obeyed. Every day I practised for hours in burying
forever the old Avis Everhard beneath the skin of another woman whom I