she replied guardedly. "I like Mr. Oscard's way of doing things."

The matter of the telegram summoning Oscard had not yet been explained.
She did not want to explain it at that moment; indeed, she hoped that
the explanation would never be needed.

"However," she added, "you will see when you get home."

He laughed.

"The least pleasant part of it is," he said, "your evident desire to see
the last of me. Could you not disguise that a little--just for the sake
of my feelings?"

"Book your passage by the next boat and I will promptly descend to the
lowest depths of despair," she replied lightly.

He shrugged his shoulders with a short laugh.

"This is hospitality indeed," he said, moving towards the door.

Then suddenly he turned and looked at her gravely.

"I wonder," he said slowly, "if you are doing this for a purpose. You
said that you met my father--"

"Your father is not the man to ask any one's assistance in his own
domestic affairs, and anything I attempted to do could only be looked
upon as the most unwarrantable interference."

"Yes," said Meredith seriously. "I beg your pardon. You are right."

He went to his own room and summoned Joseph.

"When is the next boat home?" he asked.

"Boat on Thursday, sir."

Meredith nodded. After a little pause he pointed to a chair.

"Just sit down," he said. "I want to talk over this Simiacine business
with you."

Joseph squared his shoulders, and sat down with a face indicative of
the gravest attention. Sitting thus he was no longer a servant, but a
partner in the Simiacine. He even indulged in a sidelong jerk of the
head, as if requesting the attention of some absent friend in a humble
sphere of life to this glorious state of affairs.

"You know," said Meredith, "Mr. Durnovo is more or less a blackguard."

Joseph drew in his feet, having previously hitched his trousers up at
the knees.

"Yes, sir," he said, glancing up. "A blackguard--a damned blackguard,"
he added unofficially under his breath.

"He wants continual watching and a special treatment. He requires
someone constantly at his heels."

"Yes, sir," admitted Joseph, with some fervour.

"Now I am ordered home by the doctor," went on Meredith. "I must go by
the next boat, but I don't like to go and leave Mr. Oscard in the lurch,
with no one to fall back upon but Durnovo--you understand."

Joseph's face had assumed the habitual look of servitude--he was no
longer a partner, but a mere retai