ing from his own reflection to Paul's face and
back again with swift alternation. He pinched a bit of the cosmetic
between thumb and finger, and dressed his eyelashes with it. Then he
carefully drew an arched eyebrow, and paused to look at Paul again.
The single brow gave him a comically elfin look, and Paul grinned; Herr
Pauer drew another eyebrow, touched up his moustache, obliterated the
gray upon his temples, and combed and twisted moustache and hair to his
own satisfaction. Then he sat down on the table, and looked once more
at his companion. Paul looked back at him, but felt his very eyeballs
redden. The band beyond the screen played louder and louder. Then there
came a great roar of applause, and Herr Pauer, keeping an eye on Paul
till the last instant, walked away.

The fat man entered a minute later.

'The governor says you are to go inside,' he said, 'and wait till his
turn's over. Here's your bob, anyhow. A bargain's a bargain, ain't it?'

Paul accepted the proffered shilling, and slipped it into his pocket.
Then he accompanied his guide, who pushed him through a labyrinth of
props and stays, above which were ranged benches for the accommodation
of the audience. They reached a spot from which they could see the
whole space of the ring through a break between the benches. The fat man
struck Paul as having somehow the look of keeping him in custody. But
Herr Pauer appeared in the circle, and he forgot to think about that
fancy. He wondered what his curiously-encountered chance-acquaintance
was going to do. He had not long to wait, for two men in livery came on
with a table, arranged in all respects as the conjurer's table had been
arranged in the music-hall on Saturday night, and Herr Pauer proceeded
to play precisely the tricks the conjurer had played. He was just as
adroit and swift and' agile as the original, and the audience stamped
and laughed and shouted.

'Ah,' the fat man breathed in Paul's ear, 'the governor hasn't been away
a month for nothing.'

Paul turned, but his custodian seemed unconscious of him. The
performance reached an end amidst a hurricane of applause, and Herr
Pauer came back several times to bow his acknowledgments. The fat man
seemed to wake, and, with a hand on Paul's shoulder, pushed him back
amongst the props and stays until they reached the canvas room again.
Somebody had placed a ragged cane-seated chair near the table, and Herr
Pauer, who was already waiting, motioned his vi