ght. Do you like etchings? Yes? So glad we have another taste in
common. The portfolio with the red back, Louis. Don't drop it! You
have no idea of the tortures I should suffer, Mr. Hartright, if Louis
dropped that portfolio. Is it safe on the chair? Do YOU think it safe,
Mr. Hartright? Yes? So glad. Will you oblige me by looking at the
drawings, if you really think they are quite safe. Louis, go away.
What an ass you are. Don't you see me holding the tablettes? Do you
suppose I want to hold them? Then why not relieve me of the tablettes
without being told? A thousand pardons, Mr. Hartright; servants are
such asses, are they not? Do tell me--what do you think of the
drawings? They have come from a sale in a shocking state--I thought
they smelt of horrid dealers' and brokers' fingers when I looked at
them last. CAN you undertake them?"

Although my nerves were not delicate enough to detect the odour of
plebeian fingers which had offended Mr. Fairlie's nostrils, my taste
was sufficiently educated to enable me to appreciate the value of the
drawings, while I turned them over. They were, for the most part,
really fine specimens of English water-colour art; and they had
deserved much better treatment at the hands of their former possessor
than they appeared to have received.

"The drawings," I answered, "require careful straining and mounting;
and, in my opinion, they are well worth----"

"I beg your pardon," interposed Mr. Fairlie. "Do you mind my closing
my eyes while you speak? Even this light is too much for them. Yes?"

"I was about to say that the drawings are well worth all the time and
trouble----"

Mr. Fairlie suddenly opened his eyes again, and rolled them with an
expression of helpless alarm in the direction of the window.

"I entreat you to excuse me, Mr. Hartright," he said in a feeble
flutter. "But surely I hear some horrid children in the garden--my
private garden--below?"

"I can't say, Mr. Fairlie. I heard nothing myself."

"Oblige me--you have been so very good in humouring my poor
nerves--oblige me by lifting up a corner of the blind. Don't let the
sun in on me, Mr. Hartright! Have you got the blind up? Yes? Then will
you be so very kind as to look into the garden and make quite sure?"

I complied with this new request. The garden was carefully walled in,
all round. Not a human creature, large or small, appeared in any part
of the sacred seclusion. I reported that gratifying fact