ttic in Eaton Square with his pen in his
mouth. After a moment's reflection he returned to his letter, added a
sentence or two, and signed his name. Then he restored its cork to his
bottle of ink, blotted the lines he had written, and, gathering the
flimsy pages into his hand, leaned back in his loose-limbed chair with
the consideration which that exacting skeleton required of its patrons,
and proceeded to read.

This, then, is our chance; and, since Lyveden will be none the wiser,
let us forget our manners and look over his shoulder.

_DEAR TOBY,--_

_By extracting a promise that I would write to you you did me a good
turn, for, while my first report was rendered, from a sense of duty, I
am making this one with a sense of relief--a somewhat scandalous
admission. Of course a really good footman would keep his mouth shut.
But then I am but an indifferent lackey._

_To say that I left my first place would be untrue. In fact, the place
left me--rather tragically, as it happened: which reminds me that I
must withdraw anything which I have written to you in disparagement of
my late master. The poor man had worries I did not know of, and
behaved to me very handsomely at the last, remembering that I might
have troubles, when he could not think straight, so sore were his own._

_For a week, then, I became a country gentleman, living with my dog at
a little inn where no ways met. By the end of that time I had got me
another place._

_Yes, sir, I am in the service of the Marquess of Banff, sir. There
are times when I go powdered. I have even hobnobbed with the scarlet
livery of Royalty. I am, I assure you, a very deuce of a fellow._

_With the Marquess, who resembles an irritable baboon, I have little to
do. The marchioness--a strong woman is also, mercifully, too much
engaged upon works of supererogation, which, in a rich bass, she styles
"her manifold duties," to observe my existence. Lord Pomfret Fresne,
however, a gilded youth with three thousand a year, finds me extremely
useful. I bet for him, I make appointments for him to have his hair
trimmed, I retain stalls for him, and occasionally I admit him to the
house at an unlawful hour. In fact, he is a confounded nuisance. He
is impertinent, grossly ignorant, and a niggard. Moreover, Toby, he
hath an eye whose like I have seen before--once. Then it was set in
the head of a remount which, after it had broken a shoeing-smith's leg,
was cast for vice at