h a little catch in her breath. "It is
Banks, out of uniform."

For a moment I hoped that her surprise might cover my slip, but she was
much too acute to pass such a palpable blunder as that.

"It is," she repeated; "but how did you know? I thought you had never seen
him."

"Just an intuition," I prevaricated and tried, I knew at the time how
uselessly, to boast a pride in my powers of insight.

The effect upon my companion was neither that I hoped to produce, nor that
I more confidently expected. Instead of chaffing me, pressing me for an
explanation of the double game I had presumably been playing, she looked
at me with doubt and an obvious loss of confidence. Just so, I thought,
she might have looked at me if I had tried to take some unfair advantage
of her.

"Well, I suppose it's time to get ready for church," she remarked coldly.
"Are you coming?"

I forget what I replied. She was already slipping into the background of
my interest. I was so extraordinarily intrigued by the sight of Arthur
Banks, the chauffeur, boldly ringing at the front door of Jervaise Hall.

VII

NOTES AND QUERIES

Miss Tattersall had started for the house and her preparations for
church-going, but she paused on the hither side of the drive and pretended
an interest in the flower beds, until Banks had been admitted to the Hall.

I could not, at that distance, mark the expression on John's face when he
answered the bell, but I noticed that there was a perceptible interval of
colloquy on the doorstep before the strange visitor was allowed to enter.
I should have liked to hear that conversation, and to know what argument
Banks used in overcoming John's reluctance to carry the astounding message
that the chauffeur had "called" and wished to see Mr. Jervaise. But, no
doubt, John's diplomacy was equal to the occasion. Banks's fine effort in
self-assertion was probably wasted. John would not mention the affront to
the family's prestige. He would imply that Banks had come in the manner
proper to his condition. "Banks wishes to know if he might speak to you a
minute, sir," was all the warning poor old Jervaise would get of this
frontal attack upon his dignities.

So far I felt a certain faith in my ability to guess the hidden action of
the drama that was being played in the Hall; but beyond this point my
imagination would not carry me. I could not foresee the attitude of either
of the two protagonists. I thought over what I remember