ll act
exactly as though you were a visitor in the house of an old friend. And
now I must go through this mail--I've got a chap who collects my stuff
from some of the unofficial post-offices up-state and here it is all
ready for inspection. The first room to the right is yours.

"A few pretty good pastels stuck around here," he continued, opening a
door. "That 'Moonrise on the Grand Lagoon' is rather well done.
Everything seems to be in order; if you want your clothes pressed poke
the button twice."

Archie snapped his fingers impatiently. When he went to Washington to
say good-by to his sister he had ordered a trunk packed with the major
portion of his wardrobe and held for orders. How to possess himself of
the trunk without disclosing his presence in town to the valet of the
Dowden Apartments was beyond his powers.

"If you have something tucked away that you'd like to get hold of--"
suggested the Governor with one of his intuitive flashes.

"It's a trunk at my--er--lodgings. A man who works there packed it for
me--"

"Why don't you come out with it and say that the syndicate valet in one
of these palatial bachelor chambers somewhere uptown packed it for you?
I can tell a man who's been valeted as far as my eyes will reach. Now I
have no curiosity whatever about your personal identity or affairs of
any sort, as I've told you before. I'll ring for my own valet, who was
an honest tailor before he became a successful second-story worker, and
you may confide your predicament to him. He'll ride home on the trunk.
There was never yet a valet who wouldn't steal the trousers off a bronze
statue, and I'll lift the ban on crooked work here long enough for
Timmons to call at your lodgings and either by violence or corruption
secure your trunk. No! Not a cent. Remember that you are my guest."

The trunk was in Archie's room in just one hour. Timmons, who had
received his instructions without the slightest emotion, gravely
unpacked it.

"You've got to admit the service in this house is excellent. If you
don't mind we'll dress for dinner," remarked the Governor lounging in
the doorway. "I forgot to say that there's a lady dining with us--"

"A lady!" demanded Archie with a frown. He had assumed, when the
Governor reminded Baring that dinner was to be served for three, that he
was to be introduced to some prominent member of what the Governor was
fond of calling the great fraternity. But the threatened projection of a
woma