me know. I'm willing to join.'

He followed his circus, which, as Paul gathered, had made a start at
five o'clock that morning, and Darco and his new secretary took train
for London. The two had a second-class carriage to themselves.

'You haf lodgings somevares--eh? Darco asked.

'In Charterhouse Square,'Paul answered.

'That is too far away,' said his employer. 'I lif at Hamp-stead. You
must get lotchings glose by me. You haf got no money?'

'No money,' said Paul.

'That is a vife-bound node,' said Darco. 'Co to your lotchings and bay
your pill. I shall stop it out of your zalery. Then you will gome to me
at this attress.' He gave minute directions about omnibuses green and
red and yellow, and all these Paul stored away in his memory as well as
he could. 'Now, berhabs,' said his employer, 'you think I am a vool to
gif you a vife-bound node. But if you are not honest I shall be rit of
you jeaply, and I shall know at vonce.'

Paul fired a little at this.

'If you don't think I am to be trusted you had better not employ me.'

'That is all right,' said Darco. 'I am Cheorge Dargo. I do things my own
vay. Look here. Are you vond of imidading beobles?'

'No,' said Paul; 'not that I know of.'

'Don't pegin on me,' said Darco. 'There is everypody thinks he gan
imidade me. All the beobles in all my gombanies dry it on. But bevore
you can imidade a man he must haf zome beguliaridies. Now, I hafen't got
any beguliaridies, and zo it's no good drying to imidade me.'

They parted at the London terminus. Paul made his way to Charterhouse
Square, where he was received with marked disfavour. He paid his bill,
packed his trunk--a small affair which he could shoulder easily--and set
put for Darco's house. It was a little house, but it stood by itself
in a very trim garden, and it was furnished in a style which made Paul
gasp. He had been very poorly bred, and he had never had access to such
a place in all his life before. The bevelled Venetian mirrors in
their gilded frames, the rose-coloured blinds, the rich brocades and
glittering gilding of the chairs, the Chinese dragons in porcelain, the
very tongs and poker and fire-shovel of cut brass, astonished him. He
thought that his employer must be a Croesus. This faith was confirmed
when he was called into the library, where there was a wealth of books,
nobly bound.

'That gollection,' said Darco, 'gost me two thousand bounds. I am still
adding to it. Here is an original Bigv