ntly. Then--

"Very glad to 'ave found you so quick, sir. Shall I tell them to send it
along? You won't want to carry it."

"I'll see to that," said I, taking it out of his hand. "Why didn't it
blow off your canopy?"

"The spare cover was 'oldin' it, sir. Must 'ave shifted on to the brim
as soon as it come there. I don't know 'ow long----"

"Best part of an hour," I said shortly, giving him a two-shilling piece.
"Good day, and thanks very much."

He touched his cap and withdrew.

A wrestle with mental arithmetic showed me that the draught which I had
encountered nearly an hour before had cost me exactly one and a half
guineas.

Ordinarily I should have dismissed the matter from my mind, but for some
reason I had no sooner let the chauffeur go than I was tormented by a
persistent curiosity regarding the identity of his considerate mistress.
If I had not promised to rejoin Berry for lunch--a meal for which I was
already half an hour late--I should have gone to the Berkeley and
scrutinized the guests. The reflection that such a proceeding must only
have been unprofitable consoled me not at all, so contrary a maid is
Speculation. For the next two hours Vexation rode me on the curb. I
quarrelled with Berry, I was annoyed with myself, and when the
hall-porter at the Club casually observed that there was "a nasty wind,"
I agreed with such hearty and unexpected bitterness that he started
violently and dropped the pile of letters which he was searching on my
behalf.

A visit to Lincoln's Inn Fields, however, with regard to an estate of
which I was a trustee, followed by a sharp walk in the Park, did much to
reduce the ridiculous fever of which my folly lay sick, and I returned
home in a frame of mind almost as comfortable as that in which I had set
out.

It was half-past four, but no one of the others was in, so I ordered tea
to be brought to the library, and settled down to the composition of a
letter to _The Observer_.

I was in the act of recasting my second sentence, when the light went
out.

By the glow of the fire I made my way to the door A glance showed me
that the hall and the staircase were In darkness. It was evident that a
fuse had come to a violent end.

I closed the door and returned to my seat. Then I reached for the
telephone and put the receiver to my ear.

"What an extraordinary thing!" said a voice. "And you've no idea whose
it was?"

"Not the slightest," came the reply. There was a musical