ents, and a couple of my servants will attend
you. You will have nothing to do but get better. You can't be
spared. It'll all come perfectly right, I have no manner of
doubt. Father Jervis, just ask the doctor to step here."

The Cardinal talked a minute or two longer, still with that
soothing, peaceful air; and Monsignor, as he listened, watched
the priest go up to a row of black boxes, resembling those in
his own room, and take down a shutter from one of them. He then
said a rapid sentence or two in a whisper, reclosed the
shutter, and came back.

"If things don't clear themselves, you will just have to learn
your business over again, Monsignor," went on the Cardinal, still
smiling. "Father Jervis has told me how well you did at lunch;
and Mr. Manners said nothing, except that you were a very good
host and a very graceful listener. So you need not fear that any
one will notice. So please put out of your mind any thought that
any one else will take your place here. I shall expect you back
in a month or two, and not a soul will be any the wiser. I shall
just let it be known that you're gone for a holiday. You have
always worked hard enough, anyhow, to deserve one."

At that moment, somewhere out of the air, from the direction of
the boxes on the wall, a very deferential, quiet voice uttered a
few words in Latin.

The Cardinal nodded. Father Jervis went to the door and opened
it, and there came through a man in a black cloak, resembling a
gown, followed by a servant carrying a bag. The bag was set down,
the servant went out, and the doctor came forward to kiss the
Cardinal's ring.

"I want you just to examine Monsignor Masterman," said the
Cardinal. "And, doctor, please observe absolute silence
afterwards. Just say that you have found him a little run down."

Monsignor made a movement to stand up, but the Cardinal
restrained him.

"Do you remember this gentleman?" he asked.

Monsignor stared blankly at the doctor.

"I have never seen him in my life," he said.

The doctor smiled, simply and frankly.

"Well, well, Monsignor," he said.

"It seems just a loss of memory," went on the Cardinal. "Just
tell the doctor how it happened."

The invalid made an effort; he shut his eyes for an instant to
recover himself; and then he related at length his first apparent
consciousness in Hyde Park, and all that had followed. Father
Jervis put a question from time to time, which he answered quite
rationally; and at th