guessed it. "He forced his way
into the F.O. and in an obsequious tone, which you and I, Geraldine, would
be ashamed to adopt, begged for the favour of a bag to carry with him. If
the KING had known about it he would rather have sent his messages by
post."

"The general public," said George to Geraldine, "is apt to be very noisy
and tiresome on railway journeys, is it not?"

Geraldine acquiesced. She doesn't often do that, but when she does it is
extremely pleasant for the acquiescee. I pressed on with my explanation
desperately. "I can hear poor old George pleading in a broken voice that he
had to get to Paris and dared not go by himself. So they listened to his
sad story and gave him a bag to see him through, and it isn't George who is
taking the bag to Paris, but the bag which is taking George." To prevent
him arguing I told Geraldine that you can tell a real K.M. by his Silver
Greyhound badge, which he'll show you if you doubt him, just as you can
tell a stockbroker by his pearl tie-pin, which you can see for yourself.
This put George on his mettle.

"To think that to me are entrusted messages which may alter the map of
Europe and change the history of the world! But I mustn't let my conceit
run away with me, must I?" Positively I believe Geraldine at that began to
play with the idea of doing what George said he mustn't let his conceit do.
Anyhow I had half-an-hour to myself while she listened to the inner
histories of European Courts and flirted with the Bearer of Despatches. I
was left gazing at the bag.

There was only one bag, but it was very bulky. The contents were a tight
fit; something round, about a yard in diameter, about a foot and a half in
depth.

"Are you looking after this bag of yours properly, George?" I asked. "We
shall be very angry with you if you go and lose it." Something indefinable
but intensely important in my tone caught Geraldine's attention.

"That is between me and the F.O.," said George irritably.

"When I was talking to them about it--" said I.

"What have you to do with the Foreign Office?" asked Geraldine.

"Little enough," I said modestly. "I have my own business to see to. But
the F.O. have always wanted to have something to do with me. So I gave them
the job of looking after your mother's hat. Had I known that they would
send it along by any Tom, Dick or George who happened to drop in and offer
to take the bag--"

George snatched the bag, examined it hastily and then tr