could get your teeth into it.

_WANTED.--A gentleman-footman: country: good wages: would be allowed to
keep dog. BOX Y779, c/o The Times, E.C.4._

Anthony stared at the lines as if they were unreal....

Then came the flutter of a frock and herself stepped on to the veranda.
Mechanically Anthony set down the paper as if it had been contagious.

Valerie did not speak of her terrier, nor did she ask after Patch.
Instead--

"If we went up to the house," she said gravely, "I think they would
give us some tea." Together they left the veranda and passed through
the pleasant grounds. "I've got a room in the village," she added,
"and I've sent for some things for the night. Will--will you have to
go?"

"No. I shall stay. I can make shift." He smiled. "The Army's a good
school."

"Do you wish you were back?" said Valerie.

"I don't think so. A school has its drawbacks. If I were back in the
Army, I couldn't be staying tonight."

Without thinking--

"You like to be your own master?" said the girl, and could have bitten
her tongue in sunder.

Anthony winced. Then--

"Yes," he said slowly, "I do."

Valerie thought frantically. Then--

"That's the best of being a man," she said. "Take our two cases. You
have your own establishment--at least, I suppose you have---your own
chambers, your own servant. I live with an aunt. If I broke away and
set up a separate menage, I should be talked about. To be her own
mistress and excite no remark, a girl must be in penury."

Anthony's heart seemed to have stopped beating. The murder was out.
From my lady's words it was plain that she did not know his calling.
She had not recognized him, then, that night with his livery on. Fool!
He might have known that she would not--could not hobnob with a lackey.

Instead of combating her statement, he made some knock-kneed reply....

For setting wheels within wheels, you cannot match Fortune. After all,
she has made trochilics her hobby through all the ages. Look at her
handiwork here. Jill knows Jack for a flunkey and seeks to dissemble
her knowledge, for fear of bruising his heart. As for Jack, when Jill
stumbles upon his secret, he curses his luck: now that he believes it
inviolate, he is in despair.

Tea was served to them in a quiet parlour. It being their first meal
together, their friendship should have grown fat. Instead, it lost
weight steadily. They were ill at ease--both of them. To make things