they travel at.
Too dark to see anything."

He returned to the hearthrug, and the moment afterwards, the silence
outside was broken by a shrill, clear call which seemed to come from
silver trumpets.

"Very odd," said Mr. Stimpson, "some one seems to be playing trumpets on
the gravel-sweep!"

"If it's one of those travelling German bands," said his wife, "you'd
better send them away at once, Sidney."

But, whoever they were, they had already entered the hall, for almost
immediately the drawing-room door was thrown open and two persons
wearing tabards and gaily plumed hats entered and sounded another
blast.

"'Pon my word, you know," gasped Mr. Stimpson, "this is really----"

The heralds stepped back as a third person entered. He was wearing a
rich suit of some long-departed period, and, with his furrowed face and
deep-set eyes, he rather resembled an elderly mastiff, though he did not
convey the same impression of profound wisdom. He gazed round the room
as though he himself were as bewildered as its other occupants, who were
speechless with amazement. Then his eye fell on Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson,
and he hesitated no longer, but, advancing towards her chair, sank with
some difficulty on one knee, seized her hand, and kissed it with every
sign of deep respect.

"Heaven be praised!" he cried in a voice that faltered with emotion, "I
have at last found the Queen we have so long sought in vain!" He spoke
with some sort of foreign accent, but they all understood him perfectly.
As he knelt they heard a loud crack which seemed to come from between
his shoulders.

"Braces given way," whispered Clarence to Edna; "silly old ass to go
kneeling in 'em!"

"Really, sir," said Mr. Stimpson, "this is most extraordinary
behaviour."

"You don't understand, Sidney," said Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson, who had
recovered from her first alarm and was now in a gratified flutter;
"remember what I told you about Lady Harriet and the Pageant! Pray, get
up, sir," she added to the stranger, "I haven't the advantage of knowing
your name."

"I am the Court Chamberlain," he said, "and my name is Treuherz von
Eisenbaenden."

It was unknown to Mrs. Stimpson, but she concluded that he was some
Anglo-German commercial magnate, who would naturally be invited to join
the Committee for any such patriotic purpose as a Pageant.

As to the excessive ceremony of his manner, that was either the proper
form for the occasion, or, what was more likely,