I took in at a glance. No time was given me to think about it, for the
stranger was out of the car in a jiffy and had given me my instructions
in two.

"Here's your sovereign," says he; "if you want to earn ten times as
many come back for me at four o'clock--or, better still, stay and give
'em a hand inside. We want all the help we can get to-night, and no
mistake about it. You can get your supper here, and bring that car
round when I'm ready."

Well, I didn't know what to do. My mistress had said nothing about
stopping up until four o'clock--but for that matter she hadn't
mentioned ten pounds sterling either--and here was this merry gentleman
talking about it glibly enough.

For my part the fun of the whole thing began to take hold of me, and I
determined to see it through whatever the cost. There were goings on
in Portman Square, and no mistake about it--and why should Lal Britten
be left out in the cold? Not much, I can tell you. And I had the car
away in the garage off the Edgware Road, and was back at the old
gentleman's house just about as quick as any driver could have made the
journey.

There I found the square half full of people. Three policemen stood at
the door of the house, and a pretty crowd of loafers, such as a party
in London can always bring together, watched the fun, although they
couldn't make much of it. Asking what the hullabaloo was about, a
fellow told me that Lord Crossborough had come up from the country
suddenly, and was "a-keeping of his jubilee" at No. 20B.

"Half the Gaiety's there, to say nothing of the Merry Widow," says he,
as I pushed past him, "and don't you be in a hurry, guv'nor, 'cause
you've forgotten yer diamond collar. They won't say nothink up there,
not if you was to go in a billycock 'at and a duster, s'welp me, they
wouldn't----" But I didn't listen to him, and going up the front door
steps by the policemen, I told them I was Lord Crossborough's driver,
and passed right in.

Now I have been through many funny scenes in my life, seen many funny
gentlemen, to say nothing of funny ladies, and have had many a good
time on many a good car. But this I shall say at once, that I never
got a greater surprise than when I got back to 2OB, and found myself in
the empty hall among twenty or thirty pairs of yellow breeches and as
many cooks in white aprons, all pushing and shouting, and swearing that
the area gate was locked and bolted, and the kitchen in no fit state t