for me to do, but to try
change of scene, and go roaming around the world, a restless creature
without an object in life? Have I done something wrong again? It isn't
the pepper this time--and yet you're looking at me as if I was trying
your temper."

The French side of Mr. Sarrazin's nature had got the better of him once
more. He pointed indignantly to a supreme preparation of fowl on his
friend's plate. "Do I actually see you picking out your truffles, and
putting them on one side?" he asked.

"Well," Randal acknowledged, "I don't care about truffles."

Mr. Sarrazin rose, with his plate in his hand and his fork ready for
action. He walked round the table to his friend's side, and reverently
transferred the neglected truffles to his own plate. "Randal, you will
live to repent this," he said solemnly. "In the meantime, I am the
gainer." Until he had finished the truffles, no word fell from his
lips. "I think I should have enjoyed them more," he remarked, "if I had
concentrated my attention by closing my eyes; but you would have thought
I was going to sleep." He recovered his English nationality, after this,
until the dessert had been placed on the table, and the waiter was
ready to leave the room. At that auspicious moment, he underwent another
relapse. He insisted on sending his compliments and thanks to the cook.

"At last," said Randal, "we are by ourselves--and now I want to know why
Catherine went to Germany."

Chapter XXIX.

Mr. Sarrazin.

As a lawyer, Randal's guest understood that a narrative of events can
only produce the right effect, on one condition: it must begin at the
beginning. Having related all that had been said and done during his
visit to the cottage, including his first efforts in the character of
an angler under Kitty's supervision, he stopped to fill his glass
again--and then astonished Randal by describing the plan that he had
devised for escaping from the spies by crossing the lake in the fog.

"What did the ladies say to it?" Randal inquired. "Who spoke first?"

"Mrs. Presty, of course! She objected to risk her life on the water, in
a fog. Mrs. Linley showed a resolution for which I was not prepared. She
thought of Kitty, saw the value of my suggestion, and went away at once
to consult with the landlady. In the meantime I sent for the gardener,
and told him what I was thinking of. He was one of those stolid
Englishmen, who possess resources which don't express themselves
outwardl