erved me aright about
the exact locality of the room. Next moment I regretted it for I fell
straight into the arms of either Polly or Dolly.

"Oh!" said she, "I've just been sewn up."

I reflected that this was my case also in another sense, but asked
feebly if she knew the way downstairs.

She didn't; neither of us did, till at length we met Mrs. Smith coming
to look for her.

If I had been a burglar she could not have regarded me with graver
suspicions. But at any rate _she_ knew the way downstairs. And there to
my joy I found my old friend Scroope and his wife, both of them grown
stout and elderly, but as jolly as ever, after which the Smith family
ceased to trouble me.

Also there was the rector of the parish, Dr. Jeffreys and an absurdly
young wife whom he had recently married, a fluffy-headed little thing
with round eyes and a cheerful, perky manner. The two of them together
looked exactly like a turkey-cock and a chicken. I remembered him well
enough and to my astonishment he remembered me, perhaps because Lady
Ragnall, when she had hastily invited him to meet the Smith family,
mentioned that I was coming. Lastly there was the curate, a dark,
young man who seemed to be always brooding over the secrets of time and
eternity, though perhaps he was only thinking about his dinner or the
next day's services.

Well, there we stood in that well-remembered drawing-room in which first
I had made the acquaintance of Harut and Marut; also of the beautiful
Miss Holmes as Lady Ragnall was then called. The Scroopes, the Jeffreys
and I gathered in one group and the Atterby-Smiths in another like
a force about to attack, while between the two, brooding and
indeterminate, stood the curate, a neutral observer.

Presently Lady Ragnall arrived, apologizing for being late. For some
reason best known to herself she had chosen to dress as though for a
great party. I believe it was out of mischief and in order to show Mrs.
Atterby-Smith some of the diamonds she was firmly determined that family
should never inherit. At any rate there she stood glittering and lovely,
and smiled upon us.

Then came dinner and once more I marched to the great hall in her
company; Dr. Jeffreys got Mrs. Smith; Papa Smith got Mrs. Jeffreys who
looked like a Grecian maiden walking into dinner with the Minotaur;
Scroope got one of the Miss Smiths, she who wore a pink bow, the gloomy
curate got the other with a blue bow, and Archibald got Mrs. Scroope w