a ploughed field. His
hair and beard and moustache were all crisp and curling, and their
blackness was faintly streaked with gray.

'You don't like that?' said the stranger again. 'No,' said Paul. I
don't.'

'The cruel thing about it,' said the stranger, 'is that other people
do.'

'Yes,' said Paul; 'that is the cruel thing about it.'

He had the suspicion of strangers which is natural to most rustic folk
in London, and his manner was purposely dry.

'It strikes me,' said the yellow man, 'that you and I are about the only
sensible people here. Come and have a drink.'

'Thank you,'Paul returned, 'I don't drink with strangers.'

'Oh, well,' said the other, 'that's a wise thing, too. Have a cigar?'

'I don't smoke, thank you.'

'And that again is a very sensible thing,' said the stranger, laughing.
'I am a slave to tobacco. Smoking has ceased to be a pleasure since it
became a necessity.'

The man's speech had a faintly foreign sound, but his English was
faultless. The very slight peculiarity which marked it was rather a
level flatness in the tone than an accent It suggested a time when it
had cost him an effort to speak the language, though the time had long
passed away. The good-nature with which he accepted Paul's rebuff lulled
the youngster's suspicions, and lulled it the more completely that the
man turned away with a smiling nod and made no further attempt to enter
into conversation.

The lion comique was followed by a juggler, who appeared in the guise
of a hotel waiter, and laid a table as if for breakfast. The table
arranged, he began to perform the most extraordinary tricks with
the things he had placed upon it Eggs, egg-cups, teapot, cream-jug,
sugar-basin, breakfast bacon, loaf, bread-trencher, table-napkins,
plates, knives, forks, and spoons spouted in a fountain from his hands.
They seemed to be thrown into the air at random, and the man darted
hither and thither about the stage to catch them. Then he was back at
the table again amidst a storm of crockeryware, cutlery, and provisions,
and each article as it descended was caught with an astonishing
dexterity and set in its proper place with a swift exactness which
looked like magic. The artist had a perfect aplomb, and he put off
the catching of each article till the last fraction of the inevitable
second, so that he seemed secure in perfect triumph and yet on the edge
of instant failure. The house howled with excited laughter and applause,
and