r, I put them in the corresponding rooms opposite, sir. I don't
think the prima donnas like it."

"Ah!"

"Yes, sir."

Whatever was in their minds, the two men never changed their steady,
practical gravity of manner. The major-domo's appeared to be a subdued
imitation of his master's, worn, as he might have worn his master's
clothes, had he accepted, or Mr. Rushbrook permitted, such a
degradation. By this time they had reached the door of Mr. Rushbrook's
room, and the man paused. "I didn't include some guests of Mr. Leyton's,
sir, that he brought over here to show around the place, but he told me
to tell you he would take them away again, or leave them, as you liked.
They're some Eastern strangers stopping with him."

"All right," said Rushbrook, quietly, as he entered his own apartment.
It was decorated as garishly as the hall, as staring and vivid in color,
but wholesomely new and clean for all its paint, veneering, and plaster.
It was filled with heterogeneous splendor--all new and well kept, yet
with so much of the attitude of the show-room still lingering about
it that one almost expected to see the various articles of furniture
ticketed with their prices. A luxurious bed, with satin hangings and
Indian carved posts, standing ostentatiously in a corner, kept up this
resemblance, for in a curtained recess stood a worn camp bedstead,
Rushbrook's real couch, Spartan in its simplicity.

Mr. Rushbrook drew his watch from his pocket, and deliberately divested
himself of his boots, coat, waistcoat, and cravat. Then rolling himself
in a fleecy, blanket-like rug with something of the habitual dexterity
of a frontiersman, he threw himself on his couch, closed his eyes,
and went instantly to sleep. Lying there, he appeared to be a man
comfortably middle-aged, with thick iron-gray hair that might have
curled had he encouraged such inclination; a skin roughened and darkened
by external hardships and exposure, but free from taint of inner vice
or excess, and indistinctive features redeemed by a singularly handsome
mouth. As the lower part of the face was partly hidden by a dense but
closely-cropped beard, it is probable that the delicate outlines of his
lips had gained something from their framing.

He slept, through what seemed to be the unnatural stillness of the large
house,--a quiet that might have come from the lingering influence of
the still virgin solitude around it, as if Nature had forgotten the
intrusion, or wer