had employed part of the afternoon in
making ready his books for the event, to him always so solemn and
ceremonious; and the affairs of the club were now prominent in his mind.
He was sorry that it would be impossible for him to attend the meeting;
fortunately, all the usual preliminaries were complete.

He took a piece of notepaper from a little hanging cupboard, and,
sprawling across the table, began to write under the lantern. The pencil
seemed a tiny toy in his thick roughened fingers:

'_To Mr. Andrew McCall, Chairman Queen's Arms Slate Club._

'DEAR SIR,

'I regret to inform you that I shall not be at the meeting
to-night. You will find the' books in order....'

Here he stopped, biting the end of the pencil in thought. He put down
the pencil and stepped hastily out of the stable, across the yard, and
into the hotel. In the large room, the room where cyclists sometimes
took tea and cold meat during the summer season, the long deal table
and the double line of oaken chairs stood ready for the meeting. A fire
burnt warmly in the big grate, and the hanging lamp had been lighted. On
the wall was a large card containing the rules of the club, which had
been written out in a fair hand by the schoolmaster. It was to this card
that Froyle went. Passing his thumb down the card, he paused at Rule
VII.:

'Each member shall, on the death of another member, pay 1s. for
benefit of widow or nominee of deceased, same to be paid within
one month after notice given.'

'Or nominee--nominee,' he murmured reflectively, staring at the
card. He mechanically noticed, what he had noticed often before
with disdain, that the chairman had signed the rules without the
use of capitals.

He went back to the dusk of the coach-house to finish his letter,
still murmuring the word 'nominee,' of whose meaning he was not
quite sure:

'I request that the money due to me from the Slate Club on my death
shall be paid to my nominee, Miss Susan Trimmer, now staying with
her aunt, Mrs. Penrose, at Bursley.

'Yours respectfully,

'WILLIAM FROYLE.'

After further consideration he added:

'P.S.--My annual salary of sixpence per member would be due at the
end of December. If so be the members would pay that, or part of
it, should they consider the same due, to Susan Trimmer as well, I
should be thankful.--Yours resp, W.F.'

He put the letter in an