ention of seeing anyone or attempting to enter the
gorgeous palace which stands in the midst of the famous gardens, there
seemed no need to trouble about the time for the call, and therefore it
seemed well to make it the excuse for a walk and fit it in with his
afternoon stroll. Accordingly about 5 o'clock found him walking up the
broad avenue, on either side of which were browsing deer in great
numbers--a very novel feature to anyone who for years had only seen such
creatures wild excepting one time when--but no I must withhold the
temptation to wander off the broad avenue which leads the visitor up to
the stately pile in front of him as, like he did a little further on, I
would wish to get it over. For it is not pleasant even to record the
admittedly awkward situations in which X., who had always prided himself
on his _savoir faire_, now so often found himself.

As he approached the portico (it reminded him much of Gorhambury, the
seat of Lord Verulam, in Hertfordshire) the stranger became aware,
rather than actually saw, that there were two figures seated on the main
verandah having tea. He almost felt their eyes upon him in wonder and
amusement, and, as he gradually neared the steps without in any way
looking up, it was in some mysterious manner conveyed to him that these
figures were ladies, and their dress, the sarong and kabaya! What was he
to do. He could not turn and fly, nor could he diverge from the broad
path and wander across the grass like any common trespasser--and, even
while he wondered, his steps took him deliberately on, feeling
self-conscious in the most literal understanding of the word--and
inexorably each moment took him nearer, though in the endeavour to put
off the evil moment he had, perhaps unknown to himself, slowed down his
previously deliberate saunter until his feet were now doing little more
than marking slow time. However, the visitor gazed alternately at the
tops of the trees and the roof of the palace, as though things of
absorbing interest were there taking place, and at last he was obliged
to realize that he had reached the lowest step of the imposing
staircase.

X. assures me that it is a fact, he never once lowered his eyes or
focussed the little party before him, although ultimately the tea table
could not have been more than a few yards off. There stood the stranger
with a vacant expression which would have made the fortune of a
performer in a waxwork show, and hoped and almost