e come by
so much personal knowledge of himself and his work? And what did she
know about his love for Alison Landis?

He swore thoughtfully, and went below to dress, stopping on the way to
make arrangements with the second-steward to have his seat changed, in
accordance with his exacted promise.

IV

QUEENSTOWN

Immediately he had allowed himself to be persuaded, Staff felt sure he
should not have agreed to change his seat to the table occupied by Mrs.
Ilkington's party, especially if he meant sincerely to try to do any
real work aboard the Autocratic; and it wasn't long after he had taken
his place for the first dinner that he was convinced that he had
blundered beyond remedy or excuse.

The table was round and seated seven, though when the party had
assembled there remained two vacant places. Staff was assigned the chair
on Mrs. Ilkington's right and was sensitive to a not over subtle
implication that his was the seat of honour. He would cheerfully have
exchanged it for a place on the lady's left, which would have afforded a
chance to talk to Miss Searle, to whom he earnestly desired to make an
explanation and such amends as she would permit. But a male person named
Bangs, endowed with impressive self-assurance, altogether too much
good-looks (measured by the standards of the dermatological institute
advertisements) and no excess baggage in the way of intellect, sat on
Mrs. Ilkington's left, with Miss Searle beyond him. The latter had
suffered Staff to be presented to her with (he fancied) considerable
repressed amusement. Not that he blamed her, but ...

His position was rendered unhappy to the verge of being impossible,
however, by the lady on his own right, a Mrs. Thataker: darkly
temperamental and buxom, a divorcee and (she lost no time in telling
him) likewise a playwright. True, none of her plays had ever been
produced; but that was indisputably due to a managerial conspiracy; what
she really needed was a friend at court--some clever man having "the ear
of the manager." (Staff gathered that a truly clever man could warm up a
play and pour it into the ear of the managers like laudanum and
sweet-oil.) With such a man, he was given to understand, Mrs. Thataker
wouldn't mind collaborating; she had manuscripts in her steamer-trunk
which were calculated to prove a number of things ...

And while he was easing away and preparing to run before the wind to
escape any such hideous complication, he was ab