text: " "Why what's the matter with you Bristles can't you untie the string?"--"Here " continued Mr Pitskiver "give me the cord " and so saying he untwisted it in a moment--down fell the side of the case and to the astonished eyes of the assembled critics and also of the party in the back drawing-room revealed not the masterpiece of the immortal Stickleback but a female figure enveloped in a grey silk cloak and covering its face with a white muslin handkerchief